PGA Tour veteran Michael Kim, a popular follow on X, is having a great start to the 2025 season. And the positive vibes kept rolling on Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational — albeit with an assist from a tournament volunteer.
Over the last several weeks, Kim has been on a roll. He earned a T2 (and $818,800) at the WM Phoenix Open in early February. Since then he’s gone T13-T13-T6 and has been a fixture near the top of leaderboards.
This week is no different. Through three rounds at Bay Hill, Kim is at five under and tied for fifth. But the 31-year-old pro would be in a much worse position if not for a heroic hole-out during the third round. And to make that hole-out, he relied on inspiration from a volunteer.
At the Arnold Palmer, the biggest challenge is a matter of life and death
Playing the par-5 12th hole on Saturday, Kim hit his drive into a fairway bunker. He attempted to reach the green in two but ended up in another bunker in front of the green. From there, he had a lengthy and difficult sand shot that he hoped to get close enough to give himself a look at birdie.
That’s when a volunteer on the hole stopped to talk with Kim.
“I was actually talking to a volunteer waiting for Bob [MacIntyre] to hit his third and he said, ‘Nothing you can’t make,'” Kim shared with reporters after his round. “And in my mind I was thinking, well, 10 feet would be fantastic.”
But it turns out the chatty volunteer was onto something. Instead of knocking it close, Kim chipped in from the bunker for a huge eagle.
Recognizing that the volunteer had called the shot perfectly, Kim decided to reward him with a special gift once he pulled his ball from the bottom of the cup.
“I gave him the ball,” Kim said.
The pro would add another late eagle at the 16th for a stellar round of 67. That put him within five strokes of Collin Morikawa’s lead heading into Sunday’s final round.
Bay Hills ‘crazy’, ‘dead’ greens
Kim’s performance was even more impressive considering the treacherous conditions at Bay Hill on Saturday. With the wind howling and players facing baked-out greens that Kim called “crazy,” many stars plummeted down the leaderboard. But not Kim.
“These greens are pretty crazy. They are crusty. I don’t know, I feel like 10 green might be dead, just the fertilizer’s the only thing that’s keeping it alive, but barely,” Kim shared on Saturday. “Bob [MacIntyre] and I hit, feel like we hit decent putts and they went eight feet by pretty quickly. So it’s just the greens, it’s really hard to get aggressive with them, just because you know you’re going to have six, seven feet coming back. So you have to play pretty conservative putts, and it’s just hard to make sometimes.”
With forecasts calling for 30+ mph wind gusts on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Kim will have to put together another gritty round to pull off his first victory since 2018. Another hole-out eagle would certainly help his cause.
