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After he putted out at No. 18 for a double-bogey 6 that ended his season, Tom Kim turned and stared again on the lake that had sealed his destiny.
“Simply this 12 months, man,” he stated later, requested what had been going by way of his thoughts. “This 12 months has been actually powerful for me personally.”
Tom Kim expects extra.
That was the big-picture lesson from the 22-year-old’s 2024 PGA Tour marketing campaign, which got here to a nightmarish conclusion on Sunday on the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Standing on the sixteenth tee at TPC Southwind he was projected to complete the week forty sixth on the factors checklist, safely inside the highest 50 spot he’d must advance to the BMW Championship and earn spots in mainly each huge event subsequent season. When he hit the sixteenth fairway he was left with simply 200 yards to the inexperienced on a par-5 and was possible fascinated by shifting additional up the leaderboard.
As a substitute he went the opposite method. Sloppiness ensued — two bunker pictures plus a missed five-footer — en path to bogey 6. The subsequent gap was extra catastrophe: Missed inexperienced, two chips, two putts. After Kim pulled his tee shot on 18 into the water, he completed with a 3rd consecutive 6. By day’s finish that left him at No. 51, the odd man out, lower than 17 factors behind No. 50 Keegan Bradley.
“I used to be truly cruising,” he stated wistfully, pondering again to his first 15 holes, which he’d performed in 4 underneath par.
Kim had particular regrets. Leaving his first bunker shot within the bunker at No. 16. Lacking his five-footer for par. Lacking on the mistaken facet at No. 17. There are particular holes on the PGA Tour the place you have to overlook on the right facet; little misses can result in huge numbers.
The bogey at 16, in spite of everything, began with a flared 5-iron that left him in a troublesome spot within the bunker. The double at 17 began with a flared 5-iron into jail. “One other actually poor missed shot, simply anyplace left is ok and missed it proper,” Kim lamented afterwards.