There’s never a bad time to tie for second in a PGA Tour event, but Michael Kim picked a particularly good moment to record his first runner-up finish.
With four rounds in the 60s at last week’s WM Phoenix Open, including a second-round 63, Kim earned enough FedEx Cup points to qualify for his first Signature Event since 2023.
That event is this week’s Genesis Invitational, which due to the fires in Los Angeles was shifted from Riviera Country Club to Torrey Pines South — a course just a few miles from where Kim, 31, grew up in Del Mar. He graduated from Torrey Pines High School.
“It felt very fitting that the first Signature Event that I play this year is back at Torrey Pines,” Kim said Tuesday, wearing a ski cap and at least three layers of clothing as he walked down the seventh fairway of a cold and windy practice round. “I was really disappointed with how I played at the Farmers and I felt like I wanted to get another crack at it.”
Just three weeks ago Kim shot a pair of 77s to miss the cut in the Farmers Insurance Open. It figured to be his last tournament here until next January, but that was before he posted his third top-three finish in 230 events on the PGA Tour, and the first since his lone win at the 2018 John Deere Classic.
Kim knew a strong finish would boost him in the Aon Swing 5, a pathway for golfers otherwise not eligible for Signature Events, but it’s a complicated system and he wasn’t sure exactly how high he would need to place.
“I knew it was in play but I purposely didn’t try to figure out exactly how well I needed to finish to get in,” Kim said.
At different times during Sunday’s final round he was in, then he was out, and finally he was back in thanks to three birdies on the back nine and a final-round score of 4-under 67.
“I thought about looking on 18, but you know, I was playing well and I didn’t want do anything out of the ordinary. I just wanted to keep going,” said Kim, whose world ranking improved from No. 162 to a career-best No. 86.
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