Michael Kim has been playing with disaster for a while now.
He has missed 13 cuts this season, three of which have come in the last three weeks. This season, he has only finished in the top 10 in one game, a T-6 at American Express in January (his second tournament of the season).
As a result, Kim fell to 129th in the FedEx Cup fall rankings after last week's Black Desert Championship, where she missed the weekend by two strokes. The top 125 players will be awarded PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season, which means Kim has fallen short of the criteria required to maintain membership.
This week at the Shriners Children's Open, he needed to make a move because another missed cut would be going in the wrong direction. Fortunately for him, he started the first round with a solid 5-under 66.
The second round was then plagued by weather, with play delayed by wind gusts of 50 mph, resulting in a 1-under 70. Therefore, Kim had an easy weekend.
Another round of 60s followed on Saturday, but it was nothing compared to his performance in Sunday's final round. Kim shot a 9-under 62, rocketing up the leaderboard to 18 under and leaving the golf course sitting within the top five. Even better, the PGA Tour projects Kim to finish 111th in the FedEx Cup Fall Rankings after this week, proving that Kim's final round helped him greatly.
“It's not a giant monkey off its back, but it's a decent-sized monkey,” Kim said.
“Including this and some upcoming events, it's going to mean a lot to getting my card ready for next year. It gives me a lot of confidence.”
Kim will not compete in next week's ZOZO Championship, instead choosing to take a few weeks off to practice with swing coach Sean Foley. He plans to return to the World Technology Championships, scheduled to begin on November 7 in Los Cabos, Mexico. He will still face some pressure at the tournament, which will be held on a course designed by Tiger Woods. But it won't be a complete battle to keep him on the PGA Tour.
That must feel goodKim, an avid X user, made this point after turning 62 on Sunday.
“Golf is a fun game,” Kim added.
“I felt better off the tee.” [on Saturday];''
His emotional final round had two big highlights. First, Kim chipped in for birdie on the 249-yard par-3 eighth, the most difficult hole on the course. The former California Golden Bear then made five straight birdies after making his only bogey of the day on No. 11.
“I think it was after bogeying 11, but it was a bit of a sloppy bogey. But right after that, I made a birdie on the 12th, and the moment I hit a really good tee shot on the 13th, I felt like I was going to make a run. I felt like I was able to run,'' Kim said when asked if she knew when. This round was starting to feel special.
Kim almost added another par breaker on the par-4 18th, but her 9-foot shot narrowly missed. It was never the intention to set the new carrier at the lowest value.
“I probably kicked it a little to the left going in, but I'm still definitely happy with the round,” Kim said of his final birdie try.
Still, he needed a round of 62 to help secure his 2025 status.
“When you try to get inside that 125, it's huge,” Kim said.
“I’m trying to lock in playing privileges next year, like The Players, so I’m very relieved, but I also know that I have to continue to play well in the next couple of tournaments.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
