Chasing historic 59, Michael Kim knew exactly how to handle the moment

BLAINE, Minn. — Sometimes, it behoves players to not think about the big picture. One shot at a time. Lots of golf left. Don’t look at the leaderboard. That sort of thing.

A couple of weeks ago at the Evian Championship, Haeran Ryu tallied up her scorecard on the 18th green and was shocked when she realized she shot 60, the lowest major round in women’s golf history.

But as for Michael Kim? He knew exactly where he stood on Friday.

The 33-year-old, world No. 57 torched TPC Twin Cities, never made a bogey and birdied his last four to shoot a 12-under 59 — just the 16th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history. At 14 under, he leads the 3M Open with the afternoon wave still to finish.

Kim capped his epic second round by ramming in a 24-footer on the par-5 18th hole for birdie, a putt he never planned to leave short.

“It was just really uphill,” Kim said. “It didn’t look like there was a ton of break. I played it about a ball outside the left. I tend to leave those short when it’s that uphill, and last thing was just get it there, just don’t leave it short. It got there pretty easy.”

Long before the majority of fans flooded in around the lunch hour, ready to enjoy a happy-hour stroll with Scottie Scheffler and his late tee time, Kim teed off at 7:07 a.m. local, the third group of the day, and got rolling with five straight birdies on holes 3-7. He added another on 9 and turned in 29.

Kim had been playing good but not great golf this season — his best finish a T2 at the Valero Texas Open — but entered this week coming off three straight missed cuts. He almost didn’t even play. This is his sixth straight start in as many weeks, but he wants to make a run in the FedEx Cup standings before the playoffs, so after a few days at home in Texas following his missed cut at Royal Birkdale, he talked himself into traveling north for the 3M.

He opened with 69 on Thursday and said he struggled playing shots when the wind was off the right. He worked on it with coach Sean Foley and on Friday mastered those. He added birdies on 10 and 12 and stood on the 15th tee needing four birdies in the final four holes to break 60.

On 15 he made a 12-footer for birdie. On 16, where he first noticed his gallery start to swell, he made one from 14 feet. And on 17, a par-3, he drained a 17-footer.

“I kind of remember thinking on 18 that you have to go for it, 60 or 61 doesn’t really make too much of a difference,” Kim said.

The par-5 18th here is gettable in two, although there’s water along the entire right side and fronting the green. It’s produced big numbers just as often as birdies. Kim hit driver — “I made the most bailout, don’t-go-right swing I made all week” — laid up and wedged on to 24 feet, 4 inches. He then drained it. It’s the first sub-60 score since Jake Knapp’s 59 at PGA National last year.

Kim ranked first in Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Putting. He made eight putts from 10 feet or longer, taking just 21 putts on the day.

“When I play tournament golf, I’m most proud of the moments where it’s, you know, this is kind of where you have to step up, you have to take the shots, you have to make the swings and really go for the shots you’re trying to hit and not kind of be too protective,” Kim said. “I made a really nice birdie putt on 16. It had a lot of break to it and it went in dead-center. There’s a lot of water on 17 and 18 and I just kind of told myself like, this is the way — this is the moment to get into the history books and let’s go for it.“

Kim’s been on the PGA Tour for a decade and has one career win, which came at the 2018 John Deere Classic. He had just one second last year and so far one this year. (He’s also one of the best social media follows in golf.) Now he’s in prime position for another good week, but he’s only halfway there. He mentioned Scheffler is still in the field. Anything can happen.

Thirty-six holes to go. But first, he was off to grab lunch.