While the Genesis Championship did indeed deliver a South Korean winner, it was not to be Tom Kim who triumphed in Incheon, with the 22-year-old missing out in a play-off to Byeong Hun An.
Tom Kim had a putt to win the Genesis Championship and secure his first DP World Tour title on Sunday. The 22-year-old did appear to think that he was about to find the bottom of the cup before a brutal lip out set up a play-off with Byeong Hun An.
Unfortunately for Kim, he made a bit of a mess of the first additional hole as An made the birdie which ended his nine year wait for a victory.
It will be a disappointment for Kim that he has failed to get across the line, particularly after what has clearly been a trying year for the youngster. He did not win on the PGA Tour, while he did not make it past the first event during the FedEx Cup play-offs.
What is starting to be noticed about Tom Kim after the Genesis Championship
Kim also had a mixed time at the Presidents Cup. While there were moments of brilliance, they were almost overshadowed by Kim getting involved in a spat with the American team at Royal Montreal. So it will appear to be a setback that he has now failed to win on home soil.
However, speaking on The First Cut Podcast for CBS, Mark Immelman claimed that he is starting to see some really positive signs from Kim.
“I’m beginning to see, and I saw this a little bit at the Presidents Cup, watching him play out there, he had embarked on some swing changes, they were coming along. He’s picked up a little power off the tee, he’s now going to this little left to right pattern which is pretty reliable. But you could see when he was on the golf course, as he was making these adjustments, he never looked completely convinced,” he said.
“A lot of practice swings, a lot of time over shots. And I began to see at the Presidents Cup where he looked more reactive, he looked more like he was in the flow a little bit, and he looked like the fresh-faced Tom Kim that came out and all of a sudden won a couple of events at the outset of his PGA Tour career.
“So I feel like all the work that’s been done has now grown a bit of a taproot and it looks like he’s in really good working order for a run next year, because both he and Byeong, they have the chops to win on tour. And not just to win, to win multiple events, so it’s cool to see, and it was cool to see that both of them were right there in the mix.”
How Tom Kim performed throughout 2024
Kim will hope that his performance in South Korea is largely a sign of what is to come, rather than another setback in an underwhelming 2024 for the starlet.
Obviously, he failed to win, while he has missed out in two play-offs now. His eighth place finish at the Olympic Games represented his only other top 10 across the season. And he went on to miss five cuts.
Kim is still so young, so it was arguably inevitable that he would endure a significant dip in form at one stage. Expectations are so high because of the talent he clearly possesses, and his development was never going to be linear.
But perhaps there have been the signs in the last few weeks which suggest that Kim is getting back on track after a tough spell.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
