The 30-year-old pro only has one win on his resume (the 2018 John Deere Classic), but his profile has been on a steady rise thanks to his consistently entertaining commentary on X (formerly Twitter). Kim has gained a following of 108,000 with fun stories about his fellow players, swing videos and instruction, and insider details on PGA Tour life.
But apparently, all that online notoriety has yet to put him on the mainstream radar. Case in point: an oversight at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, which Kim highlighted in a characteristically self-deprecating manner on X.
Kim posted a screenshot that listed players in the field with San Diego ties. Among them: Charley Hoffman, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Sisk and J.J. Spaun. Missing from the list: Kim, despite the fact that he is perhaps the most “local” competitor of them all, as an alum of Torrey Pines High School.
“I literally went to Torrey Pines HS and they still forget about me….” Kim wrote with a face-palm emoji. “#playbetter.”
On Tuesday, Kim had a good-natured response to the omission.
“It’s kind of funny, a friend sent me the screen shot of my name not being on the list of guys from San Diego. I’m kind of looking at the list and I see Charley Hoffman, yeah, I get that. I see Xander Schauffele, yeah, I get that,” Kim said. “I see J.J. Spaun, I’m like hmm, like I don’t know, probably, I don’t know, if you remember J.J. you probably should remember me.
“And I see Cameron Sisk and I’m like, who the hell is Cameron Sisk? Funny enough, I actually ran into him on the range just earlier and he had a picture. He caddied for me like 10 years ago when I was playing this event as like a First Tee like walk up 18 and he sent me the picture,” Kim continued. “It was kind of funny, it was kind of one of my first old veteran guy moments, I guess. I still feel I’m one of the younger guys out here, but seeing that was kind of funny.”
And of course, in true Michael-Kim fashion, he posted the throwback photo too.
Kim is coming off a T6 finish at last week’s American Express. This week marks his eighth appearance at the Farmers Insurance Open, where his best finish was T23 in 2018.
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.