Tom Kim stood on the 16th tee six under for the week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but more importantly, 46th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Kim was far off winning this week’s event — that eventually went to Hideki Matsuyama — but with a reachable par-5 ahead of him, a chance to make up just a bit more ground, it was likely he’d be around next week at the BMW Championship in Colorado for the second year in a row.
Perhaps more importantly, he’d also be exempt into all eight of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, ever crucial these days, if he could keep it together to remain in the top 50 over the last three holes.
But that’s not how it went.
Instead, Kim drove it in the fairway and had just an iron left into the par-5 when he blocked it into a greenside bunker.
“Really poor missed shot, just anywhere left is fine and missed it right,” he said of the approach.
From there he took two shots to get out of the sand and missed the par putt for a deflating 6.
However, Kim was still OK. In fact, he would be fine as long as he didn’t play the last two holes in three over par or worse. Surely a Tour pro, one with three PGA Tour wins in an already promising young career, would find a way to get home in 10 shots or less over two par-4s. Even two as hard as the 17th and 18th at TPC Southwind.
Again, he hit a perfect drive at 17. Again, he blocked an iron right. Again, he left his chip shot short. Again he hit on to the green and missed the putt for another 6, this time a double bogey.
On 18, he was out of shots to play with. He needed par to stay within the top 50, although he wasn’t totally sure on the tee.
“I did think I was going to need [birdie to have] a shot, but at the same time, it’s not like I played overly aggressive,” Kim said. “I picked a good target, and it was into the wind so I couldn’t hit 3-wood so I had to hit driver.”
On the 18th, a 450-yard sharp dogleg left par-4 that plays around a long lake for its entire length, Kim’s tee ball never crossed over dry land.
“It stayed dead straight, and the wind got it, and it didn’t cover,” he said. “Hit a good drive, and the wind switched and the wind started to pick up, and didn’t cover.”
He had to drop more than 250 yards from the hole and made another 6, his third in a row, that left him projected 51st in the standings. When Nick Dunlap finished off his tournament in a tie for 5th, that was enough points to move Dunlap into the top 50 and push Kim out.
Kim, Mackenzie Hughes and Jake Knapp were the only three players to fall out of the top 50 this week. Dunlap, Viktor Hovland and Eric Cole all moved in.
“I told myself before the day that if I didn’t play well, I really felt like I was going to finish 51,” Kim said. “I kind of told myself, if that happens, I’ve done everything I could to be inside that top 50 and hopefully give myself a chance at Tour Championship. But I couldn’t, and I’m going to look forward to a really good off-season because I’m pretty tired.”
After he finished on 18, he stared into the lake. He said he was looking back at the entire season.
“This year has been really tough for me personally,” Kim said. “I went through a lot of changes. I played some good golf and had probably five bad rounds that cost me possibly one top 5, one top 10, and something like this. First round, second round I think I finished 5-over my last few holes. When things aren’t going your way, things aren’t going your way. It shows you in a decent year, this could have been like a 30th instead of a 51st.”
It’s the second straight emotional end to an event for Kim. He finished 8th at the Olympics where a medal position could have exempted him from mandatory military service back in his home country of South Korea.
He was seen wiping tears from his face in the scoring trailer after the final round in Paris.
