Chasing for 59 years, Michael Kim knew exactly how to handle this time
BLAINE, Minn. – Sometimes, players should not think about the big picture. One shot at a time. There is still a lot of golf left. Don’t look at the leaderboard. Something like that.
A few weeks ago at the Evian Championship, Haeran Ryu compiled her scorecard on the 18th and was shocked to see that she shot a 60, the lowest round in women’s golf history.
But about Michael Kim? He knew exactly where he stood on Friday.
The 33-year-old, world No. 57, scorched the TPC Twin Cities, never bogeyed and birdied his final four to shoot a 12-under 59 — the 16th-under 60 in PGA Tour history. At 14 under, he leads the 3M Open with the afternoon wave still to finish.
Kim capped his historic second round with a 24-footer on the par-5 18th hole for birdie, a putt he never planned to leave short.
“It was just too high,” Kim said. “It didn’t look like there was a little break. I played it with the ball outside the left. I usually leave it short when it’s uphill, and the last one is just to get there, don’t leave it short. It got there easily.”
Long before the crowds filled in at lunchtime, ready to enjoy a happy hour stroll with Scottie Scheffler and his late tee time, Kim teed off at 7:07 a.m. local time, the third tee of the day, and began rolling with five straight birdies on holes 3-7. He added another 9 to make it 29.
Kim has been playing good but not great golf this season – his best finish being a T2 at the Valero Texas Open – but he enters this week having missed three cuts. He almost didn’t even play. This is his sixth straight start in as many weeks, but he wants to make a run at the FedEx Cup before the playoffs, so after a few days at home in Texas following his cut at Royal Birkdale, he talked himself into heading north with 3M.
He opened with a 69 on Thursday and said he struggled to play his shots when the wind was blowing from the right. He worked on it with coach Sean Foley and on Friday he was able to do that. He added birdies on 10 and 12 and stood on the 15th needing four birdies in the final four holes to break 60.
On the 15th he made a 12-footer for birdie. At 16, where he began to see his gallery start to swell, he made one from 14 meters. And on 17, a par-3, he drained a 17-footer.
“I remember thinking at 18 that you should take it, 60 or 61 doesn’t make a big difference,” Kim said.
The par-5 18th here is twice as accessible, although there is water all along the right side and in front of the green. It is produced in large numbers often as birdies. The driver that beat Kim — “I made the most bail, don’t-go-right swing I’ve done all week” — was put up and thrown 24 feet, 4 inches. Then he dismissed it. First sub-60 score since Jake Knapp’s 59 at PGA National last year.
Kim is ranked first in Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Putting. He made eight putts from 10 feet or more, taking just 21 putts for the day.
“When I play tournament golf, I’m most proud of the times when there’s, you know, this is the type where you have to step on itp, you’ve got to take the shot, you’ve got to make the swings and really go for the shot you’re trying to hit and not be too defensive,” Kim said. “I made a really good birdie putt on 16. It had a big break in it and went into a dead stop. There is a lot of water on the 17th and 18th and I just thought to myself, here is the way — this is the time for us to enter the history books and follow it.“
Kim has been on the PGA Tour for ten years and has one career win, which came at the 2018 John Deere Classic. He had just one second last year and one so far this year. (He’s also one of the best social media followers of golf.) Now he’s at the top of another great week, but he’s still in the middle. He said Scheffler is still on the field. Anything can happen.
Thirty-six holes remain. But first, he was going to have lunch.
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