Tom Kim turns embarrassing tee shot into miraculous birdie at Pebble Beach

Heading into Saturday’s third round at the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Tom Kim was eyeing the lead. But an embarrassing opening tee shot nearly derailed his hopes. Nearly.

The popular Tour pro began Round 3 four shots behind 36-hole leader Sepp Straka. Starting at Pebble’s par-4 1st hole, Kim knew a quick birdie could help him build momentum for the rest of the round.

He got his birdie alright. But he did so in one of the more unlikely ways, at least for a pro golfer.

With the 1st playing 382 yards with a dogleg right, Kim let his driver rest and pulled a fairway wood instead. Now, the wind was bad on Saturday, and lots of players were playing knockdown shots. Kim may have even intended to hit a knockdown tee shot at 1. But he definitely didn’t intend for his ball to fly quite as low (or short) as it did.

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As video of the shot shows, Kim took a big swing with his fairway wood but made poor contact, with the ball hitting the top portion of the clubface. Kim’s ball flew off the face and tore up the fairway at an extremely low altitude, never more than a few feet off the ground. You might call it a top, or a skull, or a duff. But whatever you call it, it was a shocking shot coming off the club of a top pro.

The Golf Channel TV analysts’ immediate reactions told the whole story.

“That came out low didn’t it?”

“It sure did. Not what he envisioned.”

“I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Could you say that was a topped shot?”

“Ehhh that wasn’t what he was planning, no. They’re laughing about it right now.”

Given its trajectory, Kim’s ball rolled a long way down the fairway, eventually settling 215 yards from the tee, according to PGATour.com.

Despite the unfortunate tee shot, Kim still had only about 165 yards left to the green. But when his approach shot missed the green left and settled in the rough, a birdie looked all but impossible. At that point, saving par was the goal.

But no one told Kim. He took a high-lofted wedge and made a semi-flop shot, sending his ball high and watching it come down only a few feet onto the putting surface, then track directly to the hole and drop in the cup.

You can check out both shots below.

The unlikely birdie moved Kim to 11 under for the day, earning him the hot start he was searching for. In the end, he finished the day at 14 under and will start the final round two shots behind the now 54-hole leader Straka.