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Four years ago, a 20-year-old Tom Kim came to Scotland for the very first time and nearly won the Genesis Scottish Open. Four years later, he returned a little older and a little wiser and left with the trophy.
“I love links golf,” Kim said on Thursday, after an opening round of 65. “I think you have to be really patient, and it rewards guys who accept results and are mentally tough because it’s not fair all the time.”
Patience was his mantra for the week. And it paid off.
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On a weekend of mixed weather at The Renaissance Club, the leaderboard was equally mixed. Thirteen different players held at least a share of the lead over the final two rounds, but it was Kim who outlasted them all, carding a final-round 64 to finish at 17 under par to win by two strokes over Min Woo Lee. It had been 1,001 days since Kim’s last tour victory.
“This is where it all started for me.” Kim said after saving par on the 72nd hole. “I didn’t even have status and finished third here… to be able to finish it off today, and win an event like this, is really cool”
Kim has had a rollercoaster start to his PGA Tour career. In his rookie year in 2022, he became the first player since Tiger Woods to win twice before the age of 21. The South Korean rocketed inside the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings and earned a place on the Presidents Cup team.
He successfully defended his Shriners Children’s Open title in 2023, but the struggles began soon after. In 25 starts last season, Kim managed just one top-10 finish and dropped out of the top 100 in the world.
“I’ve had to have a lot of patience the last couple of years,” he said in his post-victory press conference. “I think in golf, and life in general, patience goes such a long way. I’ve gotten to really appreciate that a lot.”
Again, that word. Patience.
A new caddie, a new coach, a new swing and a new mantra saw Kim come into 2026 with reason to believe his early success wasn’t a false dawn.
After watching the first two majors of the year from home, Kim earned his way into the U.S. Open through regional qualifying and parlayed that into a top-three finish at Shinnecock Hills. Validation for some hard work and hard truths in recent months.
So where better to tee it up this week than here in Scotland? This was Kim’s fifth appearance at the Scottish Open. He had finished inside the top 20 in each of his four previous visits.
“I’ve had some heartbreaks here. I finished third, I played in the final group the year Rory won [in 2023] and I’ve been close here a couple of times.”
Never is patience more in demand in professional golf than on links courses. Bad breaks, unlucky lies and changing weather are the ingredients of how the game is played here. Exhibit A, Kim on the fourth hole on Sunday.
The signature hole at Renaissance wraps around the coastline, bending left to a green perched severely from right to left. Having narrowly rolled off the fairway, Kim arrived at his ball to find it in a divot. A bad break. However, his mantra was patience. These things happen on links courses. It’s how you react that ultimately defines your character in these situations.
Swinging steeply down on the ball from 150 yards, in order to escape the lie, he extricated his ball to 15 feet.
“The fourth is such a hard hole into the wind,” Kim said. “Hitting a good drive and finishing up in a divot, I did such a good job … it was into the wind there, so it was nice for me to kind of knock it down, because I was in a divot, and trap it a little more. I think I’ve just turned that kind of adversity into a positive and tried to use it to my advantage.”
Kim then took advantage when he rolled in the birdie putt to take the outright lead. A lead he wouldn’t give up.
While strokes gained don’t measure patience, it can represent it. Kim hit 59 of 72 greens this week. He was first in the field in strokes gained tee-to-green. But it’s what happened when he got bad breaks that ultimately defined his week. Of the 13 greens he missed, he saved par 12 times, including going 4-for-4 from greenside bunkers.
Fitting then that he capped off his week with a par save from over the back of the 18th green.
“There’s always pressure. There’s always nerves,” he said. “But I think the experience I’ve built over the last few years, I really leaned on it, and I trusted my practice, all the work that I put in to try to put myself back in these positions. Today was a really cool day for me.”
Kim now heads to the final major of the year as a DP World Tour winner, a four-time PGA Tour winner, a top player in the OWGR again.
It appears, for now at least, his patience has paid off.
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Main Image: Warren Little
