Early Life of Tom Kim
Tom Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and is the son of Kim Chang-ik, a professional golfer who competed on the Buy.com Tour before becoming a teaching professional.[2][3] As a result, Kim spent many years in Australia, the Philippines, and then Thailand.[4] In 2018, he won both the Philippine Amateur Open and the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Championship.
Professional Career of Tom Kim
Tom Kim became pro in May 2018, competing on the Philippine Golf Tour.[4] In 2019, he mostly played on the Asian Development Tour. In March, he finished fourth in Malaysia and second in Thailand before winning his maiden tournament, the PGM ADT Championship, in Malaysia in late June, six strokes clear of the competition. In August, he won the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in Indonesia by playoff, and in October, he won the Raya Pakistan Open by nine strokes. His third win earned him immediate promotion to the Asian Tour for the remainder of 2019.[4] In November, he won the Panasonic Open India, making him the Asian Tour’s second youngest professional at 17 years and 149 days old.[4]The tournament was cut to 54 holes due to pollution.
In early 2020, he finished fourth in the SMBC Singapore Open. The event was part of the Open Qualifying Series, and his top result earned him a spot in the 2020 Open title, his first major title.
Kim won the 2022 Singapore International by defeating Rattanon Wannasrichan in a playoff. The next week, he finished second in the SMBC Singapore Open, making him the Asian Tour’s highest money winner for 2020-21-22.[5] Kim placed solo-third at the Genesis Scottish Open, a PGA Tour and European Tour co-sanctioned event in July;[6] he was one of three players who qualified for the tournament through the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association. Kim earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2021-22 season after finishing T47 in the 2022 Open Championship.[7]He won his PGA Tour card for the 2022-23 season with a seventh-place performance at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.[8] The following week, he scored a final-round 61 to win the Wyndham Championship and qualify for the 2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs. At the Wyndham Championship, he started with a quadruple-bogey 8 and finished with a 9-under 61 to win by five shots.[9]
Kim qualified for the International squad at the 2022 Presidents Cup; he won two and lost three of his five matches, and the media recognized him as one of the event’s stars for his exciting performance.[10]
Kim won the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, Nevada, in October 2022, making him the second youngest two-time PGA Tour winner behind Ralph Guldahl and the first player to win twice on tour before the age of 21 since Tiger Woods in 1996.[11]
Kim won the Shriners Children’s Open for the second time in a row in October 2023, joining Byron Nelson as the only PGA Tour players to win the same event twice in a single season.[12]