Tom Kim arrived in Japan with two routes to the same destination.
An individual gold medal at the Asian Games would exempt him from South Korea’s full mandatory military-service requirement. So would a gold medal in the team competition. When Saturday was finished at Kasugai Country Club, South Korea had taken team silver behind China.
Kim did not need the second route.
The 24-year-old closed with a 6-under 64 to finish at 18-under 262 and win the men’s individual title by three strokes. In four rounds, Kim went 67, 66, 65, 64. Every day his score came down by one. The significance attached to those numbers kept climbing.
This was never going to feel like another tournament week.
Kim left Chicago on Sunday night after the Presidents Cup and arrived in Japan late Monday. At Medinah, he had gone 4-1-0 and produced four points for the International Team, the most by any player on either side. The Americans won the Cup 17-13, and Kim immediately traded one form of international team golf for another.
There was barely enough time to change time zones, much less settle into one.
Yet he opened with 67, followed with 66 and took the individual lead Friday with a 65. Saturday began with Kim one stroke ahead. He played the front nine in 4-under 31, added another birdie at No. 11 and made eagle at the par-5 13th for the second straight day.
The golf was getting cleaner as the consequences became harder to ignore.
A Final Round With Stakes Outside the Ropes
Most pressure in professional golf stays inside the game. A missed putt costs position. A poor Sunday can cost money, FedExCup points or a trophy.
Kim had something waiting outside the leaderboard.
Most able-bodied South Korean men are required to complete roughly 18 months of military service. An Asian Games gold medal or any Olympic medal qualifies an athlete for an exemption from the full requirement. For a 24-year-old with four PGA Tour victories, that made Saturday different from the usual attempt to close out a tournament.
Kim understandably tried to frame his week around representing South Korea rather than the personal benefit attached to gold. After winning, he said he was proud to bring a medal home and believed the pressure he experienced could help him in future seasons.
There is no need to exaggerate what he carried. Kim supplied the description himself.
“This day was the longest day I think I’ve ever had in my life.”
That came after four days of tournament golf, a trans-Pacific trip and a Presidents Cup that had demanded five matches from him.
A golfer does not have to pretend all pressure is equal. Saturday clearly wasn’t.
S.H. Kim Shows Why the Details Mattered
South Korea’s team result also clarified just how narrow the exemption rules were.
China won the men’s team gold at 28 under, with South Korea taking silver at 26 under and Japan bronze at 23 under. That meant teammate S.H. Kim did not receive an exemption through the team competition. Mun Do-yeob, the third member of the Korean side, had already completed his service.
Only team gold would have done it for S.H. Kim.
Tom Kim’s individual victory stood on its own.
That distinction is important because this was not simply three Korean players chasing the same trophy with an unusual perk attached. The tournament created two possible ways for Kim to remove a legitimate interruption from his playing career. One disappeared. He won the other by three.
What Saturday Changed
Kim’s PGA Tour career did not need rescuing.
He won his fourth Tour title at the Genesis Scottish Open in July and then produced the best individual point total at the Presidents Cup. His place in elite professional golf was already established.
What remained unresolved was whether military service could force a lengthy break from that career during his 20s.
That question is gone.
The moment itself was more golf than bureaucracy. Kim tapped in for par at the last, then teammates and South Korean officials rushed onto the green and poured water over him. A four-day progression of 67, 66, 65 and 64 had ended exactly where he needed it to end.
Kim called it the longest day of his life.
He left the final green with nothing left to calculate.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
