2021 Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Top 10 power rankings
Si Woo Kim is the epitome of a feast or famine player. The Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a microcosm. The 25 year old from Seoul, South Korea, has already piled up three PGA Tour wins including the 2017 Players Championship. He’s also gone through some droughts in between.
Kim’s missed four of six cuts at Pebble Beach, counting the 2019 U.S. Open.
He did, however, contend at the 2019 Pro-Am when scores of 66-71-69-68 earned him T-4th.
Kim tied for second in the field with 20 birdies and was ninth in the field in strokes gained putting in the two rounds recorded at Pebble Beach .
He has leveled out to play as steady golf as we’ve seen from him in recent weeks on the PGA Tour. Most notable of course was his win at The American Express. He’s a guy who can go low and proved it with 66-68-67-64 to hold off a hard charge by Patrick Cantlay.
Kim missed the cut the week after at Torrey Pines but got back into the money with T-50th at the Phoenix Open. He owns five top-34 finishes in his last eight starts.
Kim is above Tour average in all strokes gained categories. His short game has been great, ranking him 11th in strokes gained around the green (.517).
He was 23rd in that category a season ago, so what’s the big difference maker? It’s his driving. Kim’s up from 127th (-.075) in SG off the tee in 2019-20 to 52nd (.277).
Kim likes to be aggressive off the tee, but if he plays sensible this week he can contend for another win in California.