2020 Wyndham Championship: Top 10 power rankings at Sedgefield CC
Si Woo Kim’s career has been boom or bust. His results at the Wyndham Championship are a microcosm.
Kim missed the cut in his tournament debut in 2013. In his next start at Sedgefield three years later, he wins the dang thing.
Not only did he win, but rounds of 68-60-64-67 got him to 21-under for a five-shot victory. He was six shots clear of third place. Oh yeah, and Kim was barely 21 years old at the time.
Kim did not come back in 2017 and missed the cut in 2018. The Mercurial Man got in contention in 2019, finishing solo fifth (66-65-68-64) and just five back. His 17-under total would have won in some years, but winner JT Poston was a man on a mission in tying the tournament’s 72-hole record.
Kim was the youngest to earn a PGA Tour card at 17 years, 5 months and 6 days back in 2012. Due to PGA Tour rules, he couldn’t tee it up until he turned 18 midway through the season. He couldn’t do enough to earn his card in eight starts, and went to the Web.com Tour.
A good season there got him back to the PGA Tour, where he’s been ever since.
Kim followed up his breakthrough win at the Wyndham with another breakthrough at the Players Championship. This was another multi-shot romp, as he beat the field by three.
Kim surprisingly hasn’t found the winner’s circle since. Injuries have been part of the equation, as has inconsistency.
In 2018, he finished solo second and nearly won the RBC Heritage. He couldn’t crack the top 40 in his next 10 starts, then ended the year with four straight top-25s.
A year later, Kim surged for three top-fives by April, only to record just one more by year’s end (at the Wyndham).
The 25-year-old’s poor play continued early in 2020. He even missed his first two cuts after quarantine, but is now on a streak of seven straight paychecks.
That includes T-11th at the Travelers, T-18th at the Memorial and T-13th last week at thePGA.
Kim was in the 60s all four days at TPC Harding Park (69-68-68-68) and was a green in regulation machine. He was T-7th in that category (70.83%) and eighth in strokes gained tee to green (2.18).
His season ball striking stats aren’t great, so it’s encouraging that that was what got it done for him at the PGA. He’s 32nd on Tour this season in strokes gained around the green (.281). He’s had a top-25 short game three times in his career, so that’s always going to be there.
At 121st in the FedEx Cup, he may need to make the cut to secure a spot in the top 125. I envision him doing that, and then some at the Wyndham Championship.