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Can the toast of the fall become the major championship (or elevated event) debutante of the spring? That’s the question when it comes to Tom Kim, winner of two post-Open Championship events on the PGA Tour and individual champion (if there was one) of the Presidents Cup in September.

Kim has captivated pretty much everyone who encountered him with not only his buttery approach shots and deft short game, but an electricity that is rare in the golf world. His aura, it seems, is nearly as singular and nonreplicable as his game. 

He is, without question, the best youngest star in golf. The 20-year-old (he won’t be 21 until the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club) is ranked No. 15 in the world and on the radar of even the very best players in the world.

Kim is a bit of an oddity, too. In a world where many of the top young players are making their way with distance and speed, Kim is not that long off the tee. Last year, he didn’t have enough rounds to qualify, but his average drive of 301.1 yards would have been T92 on the PGA Tour, and his club head speed of 110.09 would have ranked 177th. This is not the statistical profile of somebody ranked in the top 20 in the world six months removed from his teenage years.

And yet, the thing Kim does best is perhaps the lost art of winning. He wins a lot. In 81 starts in Official World Golf Ranking events, Kim has eight wins. That’s an enormous number that, while buoyed a bit by playing often on lesser tours, cannot be immediately dismissed because Kim has also won twice in 20 starts on the PGA Tour.

In other words, his winning percentage on the best tour in the world (10%) is actually slightly better than his winning percentage on every other tour in the world (9.8%).

I recently joked that Tom Kim is going to be the richest golfer who has ever lived, which is fun to think about until you realize it actually might not be a joke. The PGA Tour floated a document earlier this year that showed how Jim Furyk (17 wins, one major) would have made more than $600 million in earnings — if his career had started in 2023 — from a variety of different PGA Tour revenue streams.

I’m not saying Kim is going to have Furyk’s career, but if he does, he’s probably going down as the richest golfer of all time (on-course earnings only, of course).

All of this begs the obvious question of just how good Kim can be: What is Tom Kim’s ceiling?

Some incredible comps from Data Golf gets things started: Adam Scott in 2001, Jon Rahm in 2015, Joaquin Niemann in 2019, Sungjae Im in 2018, Jason Day in 2008, and Rickie Fowler in 2009. It also throws in Kevin Na in 2004 and Ryo Ishikawa in 2012.

Though I’m enamored with Kim’s presence and his sense of the moment, I tend to believe he’s a bit overvalued right now. He exceeded his expected win total during the 2021-22 season (two worldwide wins, 0.79 expected wins), and he is doing so again in the 2022-23 season (one win, 0.55 expected wins). This is not everything, but if you dig a little deeper into his profile, it tells a story.

Kim’s problem is going to be ball-striking. He’s an elite iron player — like, really great — but he’s so short off the tee that it’s likely going to prohibit him from truly contending at the biggest events. While Kim is incredibly consistent off the tee — his driving accuracy would have ranked fourth last season if he’d qualified — he has trouble gaining strokes on the field because of his length.

This could change. We saw Matt Fitzpatrick transform his distance through speed training and win a U.S. Open because of it. As Kim is currently constituted, though, he is going to have to have extraordinary putting weeks to win golf tournaments. (He did, for the record, at both the Wyndham Championship and the Shriners in his two victories.) Of the top 150 players in the world who have won at least twice in 2022, Kim is by far the shortest player of that group, according to Data Golf.

Is that sustainable? It might be. A good present-day comp for Kim might be Cam Smith, who is extremely average off the tee and actually gained fewer strokes with his driver than Kim did over the last 12 months (mostly because he’s not as accurate).

If you pull the numbers back to the top 150 players ever over the last 10 years, we get an even better picture. Here are the names that look like Kim: Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, Zach Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Brandt Snedeker with maybe a bit of Jordan Spieth.

This group (outside of Spieth) is a great aim for somebody like Kim. I don’t know if he’s going to have the careers that any of them have had, but he certainly could absolutely have Matt Kuchar’s career. He could have Zach Johnson’s career. Can he go beyond that? Unless things change dramatically — and they might given that he’s 20! — that seems unlikely.  

On paper, he may look like Justin Thomas or Rory McIlroy — generational players. But, and not to bum you out because I actually love him, Tom Kim is likely not a generational player.

This has multiple implications for 2023. As the No. 15 player in the world, Kim is probably a bit overvalued. The second, which is related to the first, is that we should consider our expectations of him. Because he won when he did, and because he crushed at the Presidents Cup, some folks are going into this season believing that Kim can (or even will) win three times. However, with the elevated events schedule he’s almost certainly going to play, that’s unlikely.

Kim’s story should be (and is) celebrated. However, will have a much better picture after this season full of expectations and only the big-boy events of just what Tom Kim can be on the PGA Tour.

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Jon Rahm has an ally, and a very important one at that. Rahm spoke out against the Official World Golf Rankings two weeks ago, and on Tuesday at the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods agreed with his sentiments.

Rahm’s argument, in its most basic form, was that the OWGR should not be rewarding the RSM Classic winner with 37 points and the DP World Tour Championship winner with just 22 points when the latter had to defeat seven top 25 players in the world and the former had to defeat none. The OWGR, on the other hand, has structured its points system to reward beating bigger fields rather than smaller ones (the DP World Tour Championship had just 50 players while the RSM had 156).

“OWGR, it’s a flawed system,” said Woods. “That’s something we all here recognize. The field at Dubai got less points than Sea Island, and more of the top players were there in Dubai, so obviously there’s a flawed system.

“How do you fix it? You know, those are meetings we’re going to have to have. We’re going to have to have it with World Golf committee and as well as … the main tours that are involved in it. Somehow come up with a better system than is in place now.”

The problem here is that the OWGR is likely always going to be a flawed system. It represents a zero-sum game (there can only be one No. 1 and one No. 2 and so on), which means that somebody is almost always going to be upset about how points are constituted.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy disagreed with Rahm (and now Woods) about the current system.

“So when you look at two different fields, you’ve got a 50-man field here versus a 144-man field there [actually 156],” he said. “So just in terms of how the strengths of field is calculated, they have 90 more players to contribute to their strength of field. So the reason that this has got 21 points [actually 22] and the RSM has got 39 [actually 37] is the person that wins the RSM has to beat 139 other guys [actually 155]. You only have to beat 49 other guys here. It’s a much fairer system. I think it rewards people that — it’s pure numbers. Strength of field has not hurt people feelings.

“Has it upset people? Yes, because people have been used to getting a certain amount of [OWGR] points in one event and now it’s dropped. But I would say those events were getting more than they should be. I think it’s the fairest system that you can come up with right now. And a lot of work went into that, five years of algorithms and analysis and work went on into the system, so it’s not as if it changed overnight. A lot has went into it. It’s the best one that we can come up with right now, and I think it will take a while. It will take another 18 months for it to play out because everyone gets two years into the rolling system.

“It’s a little bit — as it’s being rolled out, there’s a little bit of discrepancy, but once we get two years into it and have the minimum divisor and all the events. I think you’ll see a fairer reflection of where everyone is ranked in the world that is eligible.”

Woods didn’t call the OWGR laughable like Rahm did, but surely the members of the OWGR — which include the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Augusta National Golf Club, PGA of America, R&A, USGA and International Federation of PGA Tours — will take into account Woods’ words about a revamped system that was recently implemented in August.

“I remember in my career, when I had a big lead in my career, I didn’t have to play a single tournament the next year and I still would be ranked No. 1,” said Woods. “We changed that system then. So it has been changed in the past, and I’m sure this will be changed hopefully soon.”

All of this is extraordinarily nuanced, of course, and as Data Golf pointed out, the OWGR actually rewards the lower half of smaller fields more than it does the lower half of bigger fields. 

There are also very few instances of small fields with great players on the top tours. It’s a problem that I’m not positive is big enough to deserve a solution. Regardless, this will be discussed into the future, especially given the demand from LIV — which also has small fields with some good players — for OWGR points in the near future.

Woods spent a record 683 weeks atop the Official World Golf Rankings. Greg Norman is second with 331.

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Collin Morikawa was unsuccessful in picking up a victory at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. He was barely in contention, but when the dust settled on one of the last PGA Tour events of the year, Morikawa still found himself at the center of the story.

Earlier in the week, Golf Channel commentator Trevor Immelman had posited that perhaps the reason Morikawa has been struggling in 2022 — a year during which he has failed to secure a win — was because of how difficult it is to live up to the high bar he set for himself early in his career when he won five of his first 50 PGA Tour events and two of his first eight major championships.

Morikawa’s reaction to the very innocuous comment from Immelman was strange, and made me think he had completely misunderstood what Immelman had said.

“Wow, that’s hard to hear from him,” Morikawa told Golf Channel. “I couldn’t care less what he says there because I don’t think that’s my bar. I think I’ve got so much more to improve. I’ve been near last on putting. I don’t think I’ve even finished close to being average on putting. If I can just get my putting to be average, I think there’s so much more to improve. I don’t know where that came from, but that kind of stings there. I don’t like to hear that.

“I don’t know if that was a compliment, I’ll be honest. If he did, maybe it came off wrong from what I heard. For me, I’ve never seen a ceiling. I just want to keep improving. Obviously, we took a couple steps back this year. It’s just trying to get better every day and trying to improve on little things. I expect myself to play well. I set really high goals for myself. It just sucks when they don’t come through.”

Immelman later confirmed that the entire thing was in fact a misunderstanding, but between Morikawa’s reaction, his hiring of a putting coach and his early-week monologue about the plight of getting old (Morikawa turns 26 next February), it made me wonder what else was going on with the two-time major champion.

“It was a lot more stressful this year,” Morikawa said of his 2022. “I’ve just been kind of trying to figure out what was wrong when it was simply just kind of a body thing and just the way my body was moving. Unfortunately, it took seven, eight months throughout the year to at least find that, but that’s on me. Everything is on me just to know what’s going on. I’ve got a great team around me, but that’s the best thing is that, you know, I still have to be aware of what I’m doing.

“I just wasn’t kind of being able to make sure everything was where I wanted it to be. It’s a grind, but that’s what’s great. Even though we are kind of heading towards this offseason, this fall area, I’m putting a lot of pieces together and putting a lot of work in to make sure this kind of next 2023 is going to be [the] best ever.”

To be clear, Morikawa was talking about the way his body functioned in 2022.

“I think it’s just getting old,” said the 25-year-old. “Yeah, no, it’s just getting old. I mean, man, I drank way more in college than I ever do now, but apparently when you get older, your body just moves differently. I still feel great, like everything feels great, everything moves great, but it’s just not as clean as it was. And the maintenance I have to do now is just a little bit more. It doesn’t mean I need to do anything crazy, I’m not changing anything really, it’s just getting my body to where I need it to be.

“Last year, I didn’t really have to focus on it, but when I look back and you think about how much travel I’ve done over the past three and a half years, it’s a lot. It doesn’t stop. I love it, but travel takes a toll on your body and it takes a toll on you and you’ve got to be able to kind of work your way through that and that’s what the best athletes are doing.”

It’s clear that there is frustration from Morikawa that he has been unable to back up his spectacular 2020 and 2021 campaigns with something similar in 2022, and he sort of proved Immelman’s point — and to be fair, the same point many pundits and even players have made over the years — that when you don’t achieve what you once achieved at such a young age, it can wear on you mentally, physically and emotionally.

As for the golf itself, not a ton changed statistically, which should be encouraging to Morikawa. He dropped slightly in ball striking from 2021 (1.62 to 1.47 strokes gained per round) but not nearly enough to be worrisome. He was actually a better putter in 2022 than he was in 2021, although his short game suffered the biggest categorical drop compared to any other part of his game.

One interesting nuance is that while Morikawa’s very best performances and very worst performances were nearly identical to what he did in 2021 (his expected wins did drop from 1.97 to 0.94 from 2021 to 2022), his median performances in 2022 were far worse than they were in 2021. This, theoretically, shouldn’t matter as it relates to winning (you only win with your best performances anyway), but it might matter in regards to how he feels like he is playing.

The point here is that Morikawa is going to be fine. He’s a high-variance player, which if you’re intent on collecting a lot of trophies is what you want to be. It would serve him well mentally and emotionally to understand that just because a few tournaments went his way early in his career, that doesn’t mean his baseline is somebody who wins three or four regular events and a major every year. Data Golf had him at 0.20 expected majors in 2020, and he won one; it had him at 0.45 expected majors in 2021, and he won another. This matters because, while he was good, he was not overwhelmingly great in 2020-2021 yet the expectations after winning two majors started to pile up. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if Morikawa was a three-win, no-major guy.

If you take the long view, wins and losses often happen randomly, which means they can sometimes happen in bunches. Just because you win two of your first eight majors doesn’t mean you’re the second coming of Tiger Woods. Just because you don’t win any of your next 15 doesn’t mean the Korn Ferry Tour is in your future.

Morikawa exceeded both expectations and statistical probabilities in terms of winning over the first few years of his career. He overachieved. That happens, but it doesn’t mean a winless year has changed him as a player or a competitor even if it can often feel that way. 

Are there things to work on? Sure. Can the iron play get a tad better? Yes. Does he need to clean up his short game a bit? Absolutely. But if Morikawa continues to play like he did in 2022, he’s going to have more seasons (in terms of wins) like he experienced in 2021. That can seem counterintuitive, but as we’ve seen so many times throughout the history of golf, this game makes absolutely no sense. If you let it, the sport can befuddle even those who have seemingly every answer.

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While many on the East Coast of the United States were fast asleep, LIV Golf kicked off its sixth event of its inaugural season. The LIV Golf event in Bangkok started swimmingly at Stonehill Golf Course as bombers and plodders alike effectively maneuvered around the relatively brand new golf course built by Thai billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi.

Showcasing the depth of the field and wide range of age — something LIV was heavily criticized for at first — the youngest and one of the eldest members of the circuit find their names at the top of the leaderboard. It appears Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra has finally hit his stride as a professional after a bogey-free 7-under 65 in the first round in Bangkok.

The former No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Chacarra represents the type of golfer LIV Golf hopes to attract moving forward. Young, energetic, and relevant through previous amateur and collegiate play, the 22-year-old shares the lead with English journeyman Richard Bland and LIV Portland winner Branden Grace.

LIV CEO Greg Norman and Co. may secretly be hoping for a Chacarra triumph, but it will not come without some stress. Four-time major championship winner Brooks Koepka is not far off the pace after a 5-under 67 — a welcomed sight for Smash GC fans. Koepka has struggled in his four prior LIV appearances and has yet to crack the top 10.

While Koepka hopes to break this dry spell, the current season-long points leader Dustin Johnson will have some work to do over the next 36 holes in order to keep his streak alive. The LIV Boston winner and captain of the 4 Aces is a perfect 5-for-5 finishing inside the top 10 and finds himself in a tie for 21st after signing for a 2-under 70. 

Johnson and the rest of his 4 Aces squad are in unfamiliar territory as well as they sit 10th in the team competition. Arriving in Bangkok off four straight victories, they will need to track down Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs if the dynasty is to stay afloat.

The leaders

T1. Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, Richard Bland, Branden Grace (-7)

It is easy to forget how young some professional golfers are in this day and age as they burst onto the scene earlier and earlier each year. Chacarra is no different after experiencing a strong amateur and collegiate career at Oklahoma State. Joining LIV Golf in Portland, the Spaniard’s team claimed a spot on the podium in dramatic fashion thanks to a 54th-hole birdie from Carlos Ortiz. 

While there was joy and jubilation from the team’s perspective, individually, Chacarra has struggled. Capturing a T21 result in Chicago — his best result thus far — perhaps Chacarra is finally beginning to settle his nerves and play in the same manner which he did in his amateur days.

“I’ve been struggling the first four weeks, just turned pro and nervous and all these guys, how good they are, and just trying to learn every week. I feel my game is getting better every week, and today I thought about what I was doing in college the last couple years when I had all the success, and I was just trying to play to not make bogeys,” said Chacarra. “I cannot play with that stride today, and it definitely worked; I didn’t make any bogeys. But like I say, these guys are really, really good. I’m trying to learn every week, so happy with my result, but still a long way to go.”

Other contenders

T4. Marc Leishman, Ian Poulter (-6)

T6. Sihwan Kim, Jediah Morgan, Brooks Koepka, Harold Varner III, Kevin Na (-5)

T11. Graeme McDowell, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia (-4)

The three betting favorites are nowhere to be found in the top 20 of the leaderboard, giving way to a potential surprise winner in Bangkok. Johnson, Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann all struggled in the first round and are unlikely to seriously threaten without a massive effort on Day 2.

Poulter is a surprising name to find only one stroke off the lead. The Englishman is not necessarily the longest player in the world, and he has not played his best golf in recent months. His last top-10 finish came in January on the DP World Tour, but he may have found something in Bangkok and is a player to keep an eye on over the final 36 holes.

The elephant in the room

The Official World Golf Rankings are on the minds of players as the ruling committee reviews the merits of LIV Golf Bangkok from a world ranking points perspective. Whether it decides to award points retroactively through the MENA Tour remains to be seen, but that did not stop some players from letting their opinions known.

“They’re delaying the inevitable,” said Bryson DeChambeau. “We’ve hit every mark in their criteria, so for us not to get points is kind of crazy with having the top — at least I believe we have the top players in the world.

“When they keep holding it back, they’re going to just keep playing a waiting game where we’re going to keep dropping down in the rankings to where our points won’t ever matter,” DeChambeau continued. “That’s what they’re trying to accomplish, and I hope that people can see right through that rather than believe the lies that they’ve been told. From my perspective, I think we deserve points.”

Team leaderboard

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The first round leaderboard of the Shriners Children’s Open is fascinating. Tom Hoge leads after the round was suspended due to darkness Thursday with a stellar 8-under 63, but a host of players who bring interesting storylines to the table are just behind him.

While some of the biggest names in the field — Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler and Max Homa — didn’t ascend to the very top of the table, they’re all still very much in the mix after strong starts at TPC Summerlin. All will chase Hoge, though, over the final three days as he tries to add to his 2022 win collection after taking the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year.

Let’s take a look at his round as well as who else is in the hunt this week.

The leader

T1. Tom Hoge (-8)

Hoge was a menace in Round 1, although he said that was “a little bit unexpected” because he took some time away from golf over the last few weeks. He finished third in approach shots and third from tee to green, which means he didn’t have to putt it all that well to shoot the only 63 in the field on Thursday. This is nothing new though. Since Jan. 1, Hoge is a top 30 iron player in the world, and even higher than that if you look at PGA Tour-only players. He is unlikely to fade even if he doesn’t win what would be the second Tour victory of his career following his first in February at Pebble Beach.

There’s a lot at stake for somebody like Hoge this week, especially considering only the top 70 in the FedEx Cup rankings will make it into the FedEx Cup Playoffs this year. He’s coming off a career year in which he cleared $4 million and finished inside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings for the first time in his life (he finished 10th). To improve on that would be pretty incredible.

“Yeah, I felt like last fall I got off to a good start,” Hoge said. “I’ve played well in the fall in the past. I feel like there’s a lot of good golf courses that set up well for me in the fall. That’s one of the reasons why I’m playing a lot this year still. I feel like I could get off to a nice start in the FedEx Cup. I felt like I had that last year and continue that into the west coast. Just trying to do more of the same.

“I didn’t play as well as I would have liked in the summer last year, but you get off to this nice start, and you can kind of relax even when you’re not playing as well. Just trying to play as well as I can here in the fall and give it that head start.”

Other contenders

T2. Si Woo Kim, Maverick McNealy (-7)
T4. Keith Mitchell, Thomas Detry, Will Gordon, Tom Kim, Sam Ryder, Sungjae Im (-6)

There are so many different directions we could go here, but let’s keep it locked on how well the Presidents Cup International Team showed out in Round 1. It has three players in the top 11, including last year’s winner at this event, Sungjae Im. Im got one of the featured groups this week, and he picked up where he left off not only last year but also a few weeks ago when he starred at Quail Hollow.

Si Woo Kim also mirrored his Presidents Cup finale, where he took down Justin Thomas, by getting within one of Hoge. Is it a coincidence that those guys are carrying so much into this week’s Shriner’s event? Maybe, but also maybe not considering the experience they all had.

“I was not much confidence before Presidents Cup because I didn’t finish well like at the end,” Kim said. “I think that I had great confidence from the Presidents Cup, and then like everything feels comfortable and so much tension and so much pressure on the Presidents Cup week. So now like too much calm and nothing much pressure on it. So I try to keep more focused and like positive.”

Tom Kim forever

Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim’s partner for a chunk of the week at Quail Hollow, also started strong in Vegas after an incredible quote he gave early in the week about catching Tiger Woods’ career PGA Tour record of 82 victories.

“I’m always myself,” Tom Kim said. “The situation hasn’t really changed of who I am a little bit. No, I don’t really think it’s really changed for me. I think it’s going to be the same way. Tiger has 82 wins on the PGA Tour. Until I get to 83, it’s going to be hard for me to think a little different.”

Tom Kim forever.

2022 Shriners Children’s Open updated odds and picks

• Sungjae Im: 7-1
• Patrick Cantlay: 15/2
• Tom Hoge: 15/2
• Tom Kim: 10-1
• Si Woo Kim: 10-1
• Maverick McNealy: 14-1

I want to believe Tom Kim is going to win this golf tournament, of course, but I’m not sure 10-1 is a great number for him at this juncture. Instead I’d love to draw your attention to Keith Mitchell, who is just outside the shortest players at 18-1. He finished fourth from tee to green and fourth on approach shots on Thursday and will be a tough out if he keeps that kind of iron play up. He’s the sharp pick here even amid the bigger names. Homa (four back) at 25-1 is also worth a look.

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The international team won the sessions at Quail Hollow Golf Club on Saturday, and in the process, Tom Kim secured winning the week. Despite coming into eight matches on the third day of play at the 2022 Presidents Cup down 8-2, Kim walked in putts all over the Americans and dragged his team back into a competition that looked to be completely lost. In the process, the 20-year-old star introduced himself to the rest of the world.

In the morning foursomes match, Kim and K.H. Lee took down World Nos. 1 and 12, Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns. Though the Americans led at the turn, Kim made a nasty eagle on the par-4 11th hole, which he walked off as hard as anyone at any team event in the history of team events has walked off a putt. The Lee-Kim duo never trailed after that and went on to win 2 and 1.

The afternoon was even better — as if that were even possible. Kim paired with Si Woo Kim, and they took on the seemingly invincible twosome of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in four-ball. Kim again eagled the par-4 11th on a monster putt, but it looked as if Cantlay and Schauffele were going to be able to hold them off and secure at least a half point.

After Si Woo birdied the 16th to tie it up, the teams remained deadlocked going to the last. Kim hit the 2-iron of his life to 10 feet. He stalked the putt for a long time, undoubtedly wondering if he had any celebrations left in the holster after a day full of them. He struck the birdie putt that would win a full point against Cantlay and Schauffele, but he never saw it go in.

Kim bellowed one final “Let’s go!” toward an international side that was chomping at the bit to dog pile him on the green. It was the perfect exclamation point to one of the great singular days for an International player in Presidents Cup history.

What has become clear, as the week has worn on, is how desperate Kim is to embrace the moment. You could almost see him formulating celebrations in his mind as he walked to and around the greens of Quail Hollow, and he was nonplussed at having to take on the titanic twosome of Cantlay and Schauffele.

“[I] 100% [wanted that moment],” said Kim after the matches. “I was already thinking in the back of my mind, ‘What am I going to do, how am I going to celebrate?’ … It was an amazing feeling for that to go in because the team was behind and they were watching. I wanted it more than anything in the world.”

Rick Gehman and Greg DuCharme recap Saturday’s action at the 2022 Presidents Cup. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The 20-year-old became the first golfer born in the 2000s to win a PGA Tour event when he won at the Wyndham Championship just over a month ago, but his legend has been growing since long before that. His given name is not Tom Kim but rather Joohyung Kim, though he started calling himself Tom because he had a “Thomas the Tank Engine” lunch box as a child.

He’s an easy player for which to root. A self-decribed fast food savant, he was voted by his teammates as the player that eats the most in the team room this week at Quail Hollow, and then he proved it by splitting two pairs of pants earlier in the week. He celebrates like it’s both the first time it’s ever happened and the last time he’ll ever have the opportunity. He is, in a sometimes joyless pursuit, an absolute revelation. Nothing is as much fun as watching a golfer delight (and thrive) in his first team experience like Tom Kim has done.

Whether he ever becomes the global superstar others have predicted remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure after Saturday’s show: If the Cup gets close late in the day on Sunday when Kim plays Max Homa in the 10th match off in singles, there’s nobody else the International would want out there. Kim proved that on Saturday. And you know what? I’m not sure there’s anyone else we would rather watch.

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