Vacationers: Tom Kim leads, celebrates twenty second birthday in model

CROMWELL, Conn. — Tom Kim produced some magic on his final day as a 21-year-old.

He blistered TPC River Highlands, posting an 8-under 62 to take management of the Vacationers Championship after spherical one. Kim leads Akshay Bhatia, Rickie Fowler, Kurt Kitayama, and Will Zalatoris by two strokes after day one.

“I hit the ball within the fairway lots. Clearly, this course, if you happen to begin hitting the ball within the fairway, you possibly can go at some pins and have some good alternatives,” Kim defined.

“Clearly, I putted nicely. Whenever you shoot 62s or 64s, it’s important to putt nicely, and I took care of these alternatives.”

Kim made eight birdies to zero bogies, exhibiting no blemishes in his sport on day one. He ranked fourth in strokes gained placing and first in strokes gained general.

The Seoul, South Korea native plotted his means across the course fantastically, simply selecting and attacking his targets.

“I picked actually good targets on the market with my strategy photographs,” Kim added.

Photograph by James Gilbert/Getty Photographs

“When you could have 8-irons in, typically you need to go for the pin lots, however on the similar time, you simply go into this headspace the place, okay, that is the place I want to select my goal, I don’t really feel like I have to push or something and simply sticking to that sport plan.”

He performed fantastically from tee to inexperienced, however essentially the most outstanding side of Kim’s play Thursday is that this week marks his eighth straight occasion on the PGA Tour.

“I felt like my sport was there, but it surely wasn’t actually exhibiting in tournaments. I really feel like I’m taking part in nicely, however for some purpose, I can’t present it off in golf tournaments,” Kim mentioned.

“I believe that’s why I’m taking part in much more than I usually ever would as a result of if you happen to preserve getting reps in tournaments, you retain sharpening, sharpening, sharpening, and that’s what’s occurring. So I’m glad to see it really come out although.”

Kim’s eight-week stretch started on the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the place he tied for 52nd regardless of capturing rounds within the 60s all 4 days.

Within the six occasions since, his greatest end got here north of the border, the place he tied for fourth on the RBC Canadian Open. He didn’t miss any cuts, however his common order of end over the past seven weeks is 31.7—significantly exaggerated by that stable efficiency in Canada.

“It wasn’t like I used to be taking part in terribly; it was just some issues that didn’t go my means, and I couldn’t adapt to it and rating nicely,” Kim added.

“It’s not prefer it was a nasty week, however a nasty spherical value me that week. However a minimum of it’s a twenty sixth or twenty fifth end; it’s not like I’m ending fiftieth or lacking the lower. It reveals me that my dangerous weeks are shut, which provides me the boldness to exit and know that I really am taking part in nicely and simply attempting to maintain using this momentum.”

Kim will have fun his twenty second birthday using an enormous wave of momentum, hoping to fend off the highest gamers on the planet, together with Scottie Scheffler. Humorous sufficient, Kim and Scheffler share the identical birthday, and these two gamers have developed a pleasant rapport and have fun collectively annually.

So earlier this week, Kim and Scheffler went to Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, which has world-famous pies. Kim added that he wouldn’t indulge like that in a event, however it’s his birthday, so he needed to have fun in some way.

However he additionally will get to have fun his marvelous 62 as an early birthday current, which probably tastes higher than Sally’s, one thing arduous to do.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. You’ll want to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.