[PHOTO: Luke Walker]
Until now, Michael Kim was known as one of golf’s best social-media follows, who has shared everything from fantastic instruction to question-and-answer sessions with followers and even revelations of how much the world’s top 50 golfers earn after expenses. Dyed-in-the-wool golf fans would have also appreciated his consistent 2025 PGA Tour season, during which the Californian missed out on the Tour Championship by one spot.
RELATED: Elvis Smylie finishes runner-up to Michael Kim in France
Overnight (Australian time), Kim made a clutch par save from a greenside bunker at the par-3 closing hole at the DP World Tour’s French Open. He emerged from a day of high drama in Paris to outlast Brooks Koepka, Aussie duo Elvis Smylie and Min Woo Lee, and a charging local hero to earn his first worldwide victory since the PGA Tour’s 2018 John Deere Classic.
The lead changed so many times throughout the final day at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, a parkland course on the outskirts of Paris, that it looked more like the stages of the Tour de France than a 119-year-old golf tournament.
https://twitter.com/DPWorldTour/status/1969793747236839746
Third-round co-leader Koepka, searching for his first 72-hole win since claiming a fifth major title at the 2023 PGA Championship, held the lead on the back nine at 15-under-par, only to make bogey at the par-4 15th hole before failing to birdie the par-5 16th. The LIV Golf star allowed several challengers back into the tournament and finished fourth. Lee, the other overnight co-leader, also sat atop the leaderboard on the final day having traded eagles with Koepka at the par-5 eighth. But Lee, this year’s Houston Open winner, made sloppy errors on the back nine that led to three bogeys and a birdie, giving him an inward 37 and a tie for fifth.
RELATED: Min Woo Lee breaks Rory McIlroy’s world record
It left Smylie, already a DP World Tour winner this season at the co-sanctioned Australian PGA Championshpi, and animated French golfer Jeong-weon Ko, as the most legitimate challengers over the final two holes. Ko, a Parisian, received a hero’s welcome on every hole and delivered emotional fist-pumps to the French crowds during two eagles that highlighted a thrilling 65. It catapulted him to a share of second alongside Smylie.
“The crowd was amazing and was a huge part of this performance,” Ko said. “That positive energy, I was feeding from it. It was really important for me. I shouldn’t shy away [from who I am as an emotional player].”
Ko had set the clubhouse lead at 15-under before Kim entered the chat with a crucial birdie at the 17th, which gave him the outright lead at 16-under.
At the 212-yard par-3 18th, with bunkers and water surrounding the green, Kim found the sand with his tee shot. A poor bunker shot left him with a 15-foot par putt, but Kim drained it to become the first American to win the French Open in more than 50 years, since Barry Jaeckel triumphed in 1972.
https://twitter.com/Mike_kim714/status/1969794026825027862
“I kind of blacked out when I when that putt went in,” Kim said after posting a 65 to win by one. “To be honest, I felt like I hit a decent bunker shot [on 18] and that putt… the green slides away so much that I knew it was going to be quick, and it just didn’t run out as much as I thought. [Smylie] gave me a decent look from the side, and, man, I don’t know, it somehow stayed pretty straight through the middle.
“[I hadn’t won since] the 2018 John Deere Classic and I really wanted to put on a good showing here this week, and I’m just so, so happy and grateful that I was able to come out with a victory.”
RELATED: 16-year-old dominates Ladies European Tour event in Spain to win by 7 shots
Kim was joint runner-up at the WM Phoenix Open this year, tied for sixth at the Cognizant Classic at PGA National and fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but didn’t post another top 10 on the PGA Tour until the BMW Championship last month. That wasn’t enough to sneak inside the top 30 for East Lake, so Kim headed across the Atlantic for some European golf but missed the cut at the BMW PGA at Wentworth last week.
“I’ve had a really good year on the PGA Tour and this feels like the perfect cherry on top and I hope to continue this throughout my career,” he said.
So, how will the 32-year-old celebrate the second professional win of his career?
“I have a flight tomorrow morning, but right until that point, I’ll be drinking plenty of French wine and some champagne, I’m sure,” Kim said.
Kim may be nursing a sore head Monday morning on his way back to California. But don’t rule him out doing an epic Q&A with his followers on social media from the airport. The man of the people rarely misses an opportunity.
