After Tom Kim ended his spell in the golfing wilderness with victory at the Genesis Scottish Open, first came the fist pump, then came the tears, and then came the text message from Tiger Woods.
The emotion from Kim in recording after he had signed his card was easy to understand from a player who has been on a roller coaster for the past four years, one which is only now once again finding itself on an upward trajectory.
After success on the Korean and Asian Tours, Kim’s third-place finish at The Renaissance Club four years ago truly announced him on the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR stage and within 15 months he was a three-time PGA TOUR winner, Presidents Cup player and on the cusp of the top ten in the world.
Fast forward to just last month and he was outside the top 150 with just two tops tens across 2025 and 2026.
Then all of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, came a third-place finish at the U.S. Open and now he is a Rolex Series champion.
Taking all that into account, it is easy to see why emotion could get the better of the South Korean.
“It's really hard to put into words,” he told the press after carding a closing a bogey-free 64 for his first DP World Tour title. “If it wasn't for all this media, all the photos, I would probably go in my room and cry for a couple of hours.
“Just really, it's surreal. You know, I've had long days, long nights, early mornings, and just a lot of just... I just remember how I felt a lot of the times when I wasn't playing well, and it was difficult. Golf, I can't say that I'm going to continue this run. Golf is a very up-and-down sport. That's something I've learned.
“I'm definitely appreciating this more now than I did a couple of years ago, which is really cool. I thought about my family, all the people around my corner that have suffered with me and also celebrated with me and kind of remembering all those people really brought tears to my eyes.”
Now back in the world’s top 50, it would be easy to think that Kim could just turn back to the heady days of 2023 and put this spell behind him as a blip or an anomaly, but the 24-year-old is eager to learn from his recent troubles.
“Sometimes all the work that you put in might not get rewarded,” he said. “You know, it's very easy to think that, ‘oh, you know, you put in 12 hours every day, and then you should be playing well’. It didn't really work like that. You really treat life as each moment. Just be fully in the present.
“When you are practising, when you are working, you're not really thinking about, you know, what could come and what has happened before. You're fully focused on, ‘OK, what am I trying to do today and how can I get better’, you keep adding those days in.
“I think you live more towards the person that you're becoming when you're working that hard instead of the person when you win and it's flashy and all that stuff.
“But I'm more proud of the moments I didn't give up and I had doubts and all those things. Instead of going the other way, I kept going. I'm more proud of that than holding a trophy.
“So I think for the rest of my career, it been a big cornerstone for me of leaning into it. I think I'm always going to treat golf as... it's always going to slap you in the face and put you back to where it's undefeated. So it's going to put you back in your place, and next week, it's a Major, but I'm not going to look into a week. I'm going to treat next week as a new week and treat it day-by-day. I think it's been big for me.
Tom Kim speaks on Tiger Woods being a role model 💭
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 12, 2026
“Obviously playing TGL, being on Tiger’s team and being able to really ask him a lot of questions on certain things and he’s been really helpful a lot of them time.
“You know, this was my first win in three years and the… pic.twitter.com/TjapUfABh6
“I think I was too young to really comprehend of what was happening, and being 24 now, this is my fifth year on tour and I've been a pro for almost ten years. I feel like my journey is just starting because I'm getting older and maturing in a lot of ways.”
Kim’s friendship with World Number One Scottie Sheffler is well known and he now has a relationship with Woods, with the two men being on the same Jupiter Links Golf Club team in TGL.
Having the two men who are first and third in most weeks at World Number One at the end of the phone can only benefit Kim and he is eager to learn not just from his own experiences but from those around him.
“I think Scottie has been such a great role model for a lot of people,” he said. “If you listen to his press conferences, it comes from a lot of self-awareness and a lot of maturity.
“On TGL being on Tiger's team, I've been able to ask him questions on certain things. He's been really helpful a lot of the time.
“You know, this was my first win in three years, and the first person that texted me was Tiger Woods. Shows you the person he is and how much he cares.
“Those people that have achieved so much, not a specific person, but just listening to their interviews, seeing how they talk, and when I ask them advice, they have been really nice.
“I've kind of leaned into the best players in the world, even on YouTube, I'm listening to them speaking in their interviews, just really trying to pay attention to those things and really have blended in my mind, I guess.”
Learning from the best, learning from himself, learning to love the work and winning golf tournaments again.
Kim may well be right – his journey may just be starting.
