There are comfortable pairings and then there’s what happened in round one at the Shriners Children’s Open. Si-Woo Kim and Tom Kim, fresh off their spirited play as Presidents Cup partners, teed it up together at TPC Summerlin.
In terms of production, Kevin Kisner was a bit of a no-show at this week’s Presidents Cup, where he mustered up 0.5 points in three matches played, going 0-2-1. When it comes to vibes, though, Kiz went 5-0-0.
The Internationals’ ability to hang in there was largely due to a Herculean contribution from the four South Korean members of the team at Quail Hollow.
Kim made a 13 – yes, a 13 – at the treacherous island-green hole, putting five (!!) balls in the water before finally finding dry land on his 11th shot.
Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim both didn’t medal at the Olympics and thus failed to exempt themselves from South Korea’s mandatory military service requirement.
They’re clearly trying to treat this as just another tournament, so as to avoid putting too much pressure on themselves and having that impact their play. But one needs only to look at their recent schedule to understand just how significant this tournament is.
Because of the 13 cancelled events, plenty of big-name golfers who thought they had time to play their way into the top 125 are now sitting on the bubble.
The Australian duo of Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith ‘ham-and-egged it’ perfectly in the opening round of fourball to card a 62, a score that has them sharing top spot on the leaderboard at the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf.
Australian Golf Digest
