CHARLOTTE — The PGA Tour and major championships have tossed civility, and maybe fairness, aside when it comes to setting up par-3 holes these days. There were a couple of nearly 300-yard beasts in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023, and the tour last week had a 250-yarder in the Truist Championship.
Quail Hollow has some potentially stout par 3s of its own, so of course there had to be one to lengthen to a dauting degree this week for the PGA Championship. That fell on the sixth, which played at 241 yards for the first round and stretched to 252 on Friday.
Late in the second round, No. 6 ranked as the fifth hardest for the day, with only 15 birdies made against six doubles or worse. It was also where the shot of the tournament (thus far) might have come … a stunning hole-in-one by none other than the master of tour aces, Si Woo Kim.
Using a fairway wood, Kim sliced his tee shot onto the front of the green and the ball rolled with pace straight to the hole, just dipping in the left side of the cup. Kim’s reaction was priceless: an underhanded club toss while he sprinted toward the hole, only to stop and come back because his playing partners still needed to hit.
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨
Si Woo Kim just made a hole-in-one from 252 yards on the 6th hole! 🙌#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/o3HDWlfRIQ
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 16, 2025
As it turned out, Kim pulled out some major championship history; according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Kim’s 252-yard ace is the longest ever made at a men’s major.
Kim, 29 and a four-time tour winner, may be the luckiest player out here. According to the PGA Tour, he has six aces in tournament play—the most on the tour since 2016. Two have come in majors—this PGA and the last year in the third round of the Open Championship at Royal Troon. That one also a long one, coming on a 238-yard par 3.
The 1 on his scorecard also help Kim move into contention in the championsihp. He would eventually post a 64 on Friday that moved him to six under after 36 holes, putting him in a tie for second, two shots back of Jhonattan Vegas.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
