A little more than a month ago, Michael Kim left Utah State feeling discouraged by his luck. He just missed out on qualifying for the third year in a row and has fallen further back in the FedEx Cup fall rankings, falling outside the top 125. His 2025 PGA Tour membership was now in serious jeopardy.
Luckily, Kim's swing coach, Sean Foley, saved the day. Foley worked with Tiger Woods for four years more than a decade ago, but was unable to get on a plane. Foley was unable to return to his home in Orlando because of Hurricane Milton, which shut down all of Florida. So Foley spent an extra day with Kim, mainly practicing ball position.
“I struggled a little bit on the tee in the opening game of the Black Desert Tournament,” Kim said Thursday.
Indeed, he did. In the first two rounds, Kim was 96th and 84th in terms of tee shot gain. It's no wonder he needed to try something new, since he never got into great position in tee ball.
“We changed the position of the ball a little bit,” Kim added.
“Even though I didn’t qualify, I knew I was on the right path.”
Well, this change has helped the former California Golden Bear tremendously. The following week, he finished in the top five at the Shriners Children's Open in Las Vegas with a final round 62. In the process, he rose to 112th place.
Three weeks later, Kim tied for 30th at the World Technology Championships in Mexico, not a great result, but certainly better than missing out on qualifying altogether. And just recently, Kim finished T-12 in Bermuda and entered this week's RSM Classic ranked 110th. Even if he misses the cut, he will earn PGA Tour membership in 2025, as it is mathematically impossible for him to be eliminated from the 125-man field.
But after the first round in Georgia, Kim is well above the cut line. He shot a 5-under 65 and is tied for 6th place.
Kim said of the first round, “I hit the ball well today, especially off the tee.''
“I was able to hit a lot of greens without getting into too much trouble. I was very lucky to hit an eagle on my second shot on the 10th hole and overall I was really happy with the start. I am doing it.”
Starting from the 10th hole, Kim actually made a hole-out eagle from 142 yards on the par-4 first hole of the Seaside Course. That was an added bonus.
But having Foley as a coach and mentor is an added bonus.
Asked about his goals for this week, Kim said, “We'll see what happens.”
“I've been trying to set higher standards for myself. A few years ago, I was missing so many cuts for so long that I ended up only looking at the cut line. , Sean and I talked a lot about raising the bar and really striving for a win, which would be great if we could compete on Sunday and maybe even get a win. Maybe.”
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.
