Patio slip Thursday, shoot 68 Friday – what a 24 hours for Tom Kim!
By Matt Coles
Tom Kim slipped off a patio on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, he shot a 68 to make the cut at The Open.
“After the round yesterday I got home and I looked – where I’m staying, there is this patio and it drops down to the grass,” Kim explained of his mishap.
“There is half a yard of mud and my foot got caught and slipped and popped. It’s a grade one tear. I’m barely walking, but it’s cool how I got away with it.
“It’s pretty bruised. I can’t take off my shoe really. I don’t know how I really walked. But once the adrenaline popped in I got away with it. Now I’m surviving.”
Kim was close to withdrawing, but his coaches told him to “suck it up”.
Now his 68 has got him back to level par, and safely through to the weekend at Hoylake.
“It was very close to call it off and not play today, get home and try to see a doctor because it’s pretty bruised,” he added.
“But, no, I got some tough love from my team and I was told to suck it up. I certainly did that and played well today.
“My trainer did tell me it was definitely playable. I taped it up a lot where it’s not going to get worse. It’s just uncomfortable. I’m not going to give up. It’s just not who I am.
“I definitely went out there with low expectations.”
A quick start helped the South Korean get into his round, with four birdies in his opening eight holes.
“Once I started to warm and get more comfortable with it I was able to play around with it,” he added.
“My first hole I could barely walk. It started getting warmer. I think I birdied 4 and 5, and then I started to feel better about myself. So I think that helped a little bit.
“Obviously playing well helps, but definitely once the sun started to come up I got warmer and like I said the adrenaline hit. I was able to get through it.”
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Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
