Presidents Cup: Meet the International team

Si Woo Kim is the youngest player on the team, having just turned 22 in June. Aside from Hideki Matsuyama, Kim has the most upside of any of the 20-somethings on the team. Health has been an issue for him in his young career, though. A balky back has forced five withdrawals in 2017 and kept him from defending his 2016 Wyndham Championship.

He took two weeks off from the PGA Championship and made the cut at the first two legs of the FedEx Cup playoffs (T43 and T40) before stalling out at the BMW Championship with a T58.

Healthy or not, Kim is a streaky player. Starting with a win at last year’s Barbasol Championship, Kim won five weeks later at the Wyndham and placed top 20 five events in a row soon after before a big time cool down to start 2017.

This year would have arguably a letdown for Kim if not for his breakthrough win at The PLAYERS. With that said, a win against the strongest field in golf is hard to ignore. Doubly so when you win with ease as Kim did in his dismantling of TPC Sawgrass.

Kim did well to place T13 at the U.S. Open, but we haven’t seen such form since then.

What Nick Price and company should be able to count on from Kim is a reliable short game. Kim scrambled beautifully Sunday at The PLAYERS to post three-under 69 despite hitting just eight greens. His inconsistency and injuries dragged down his season numbers but he’s still 69th on Tour in strokes gained around-the-green.

It’s easy to be a Kim fan because he plays with no fear. It takes guts to hit driver off the deck, and Kim’s done it twice this season. The first was even from the rough. If Kim hits driver off the deck to make eagle to win a hole this week, put him on the International team for life.