Joohyung Kim started the Wyndham Championship with a quadruple-bogey 8 on Thursday then did something no one has done since at least 2003: He rebounded from the quad to win the golf tournament. How impressive was the feat? In that time only five players have opened with double-bogey and gone on to win, but none had made as much as a triple-bogey and certainly not a quadruple-bogey.
Of course, when you open the final round with a six-birdie, one-eagle 27 on the front nine, such hiccups can be overcome. Maintaining a comfortable margin most of the incoming nine, the 20-year-old Kim fired a final-round 61 to become the youngest winner in tournament history and the first player born in the 2000s to win on the PGA Tour.
Also known as Tom (as his solid build is reminiscent of Thomas the Tank Engine), Kim steamrolled the first nine holes with a remarkable display of putting, where he racked up 112 feet of putts made over the first nine holes. Included in that run were five putts made from over 10 feet with three of them over 18 feet.
Kim’s putter is a Scotty Cameron by Titleist GSS tour prototype with a SuperStroke Traxion Tour 2.0 grip that produced a tournament-high 25 birdies. The putter has a simple black alignment line on the rear flange. By tournament’s end Kim led the field in strokes gained/putting, picking up a remarkable 12-plus strokes on the field, including more than four strokes in three separate rounds.
Although Kim’s recent form has been strong (he finished third at the Genesis Scottish Open and seventh at the Rocket Mortgage Classic) his tee-to-green game was not completely on point in North Carolina, but he hit enough good shots such as the 4-iron from 222 yards at the par-5 fifth that led to a eagle to keep his run going. Kim’s irons are Titleist’s T100 model with True Temper Project X 6.0 shafts. The shot led to a call of, “How good is that?” from his caddie.
For that shot and most of the day Sunday which saw Kim shoot a nine-under-par 61, the answer was “very good.”
The clubs Joohyung Kim used to win the 2022 Wyndham Championship:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (Fujikura Atmos Black 6x), 9 degrees
3-wood: Titleist TSR3, 13.5 degrees
Irons (2-3): Titleist T200; (4-9): Titleist T100; (PW): Titleist Vokey SM9
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM9 (52 degrees); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks (60 degrees)
Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist GSS tour prototype
