20-year old Joohyung Kim punches ticket to the FedEx Cup playoffs after Wyndham Championship by DJ Hamilton

 


    Sunday was a win for millennial athletes born in the 21st century as 20-year-old South Korean golfer Joohyung Kim won the Wyndham Championship. He is the second youngest PGA Tour winner of the last 60 years, behind Jordan Spieth in 2013, when he won the John Deere Classic at 19. Hyung came in strong by beginning the tournament with a quadruple-bogey 8 and finished with a 9-under 61 for a five-shot victory. 


The first-time PGA Tour winner now ranks No.21 among the best golfers in the world, as he now prepares for the FedEx Cup playoffs, which he qualified for after the victory. South Korean golfer, Sungjae Im, finished tied second with a 68, along with John Huh, who finished with 67.

Im praised Kim by saying, "I'm really, really happy for Tom, he’s a great kid, and to come out here and to win on tour as a nonmember and secure your card is really not an easy task and he achieved that.” Kim has prepared for moments like this his whole life by developing his game in Australia and the Philippines for much of his youth. Before 18, he had already won three times on the Asian Developmental Tour and once in Korea, before making his debut in America in 2020 at the PGA Championship at Harding Park.

From making the British Open to securing a PGA Tour card last week after securing a seventh-place finish in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, it has been one hell of a five-week run for Kim. With players from the Saudi-funded LIV Golf suspended from the FedEx Cup, such as Justin Lower, can Kim assert his dominance among the rest and stamp his name as one of golf's best? It should only be a matter of time.

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