Kim Si-woo (31, CJ) rose to sole leader with eight holes remaining on the final day of The Open, golf's oldest major championship. Though it was early morning in Korea, the hearts of fans back home who watched raced along with him. Perhaps the hopes were premature. His tee shots wobbled and back-to-back bogeys knocked him out of the lead battle. Kim finished tied for 6th, four strokes back, but became the first Korean player to record 10 top-10 finishes in a single PGA Tour season.
Kim shot 2-over-par 72 with two birdies and four bogeys in the final fourth round of the 154th The Open, held on the 19th at Royal Birkdale GC (par 70) in Southport, England. He finished at 6-under-par overall, tied for 6th and four strokes behind 10-under-par champion Ryan Fox of New Zealand. He collected prize money of $550,883 (about 815 million won).
Starting the day tied for 2nd, two strokes behind the leader, Kim built momentum with consecutive birdies on the 5th and 6th holes (both par 4). He sank a birdie putt of more than 5 meters on the 6th hole to take the sole lead, and held a one-stroke sole lead through the 10th hole after making the turn. He was on the verge of becoming the third Asian major champion in history, following Yang Yong-eun's 2009 PGA Championship victory and Hideki Matsuyama's 2021 Masters triumph.
But consecutive bogeys on the 11th (par 4) and 12th holes (par 3) tripped him up. His tee shot on the 11th hole landing in a small bunker was the culprit. His bunker shot came up short and rolled into the rough, and a bogey with three shots on and two putts allowed a share of the lead. On the 12th hole, after missing the green, he gambled with the putter on a steep uphill slope, but the putt came up well short, costing him another stroke and dropping him to tied for 2nd. Kim, who sighed as his long birdie putt on the 15th hole (par 3) narrowly missed, then bogeyed the 16th hole (par 4) to fall two strokes behind the leader, drifting away from the win. He lost another stroke on the 18th hole (par 4), and his ranking dropped further. In hindsight, had it not been for the four bogeys concentrated in the back nine, he could have gone to a playoff with Fox.
Still, Kim broke his personal best major finish, surpassing his tied-for-8th at last year's PGA Championship. The Open had been a particularly difficult stage for him, missing the cut four times in seven appearances through last year, but this year he competed for the win and bid farewell to his "Open jitters."
Given Kim's pace this year, his top-10 finish at The Open is no surprise. Kim, a four-time PGA Tour winner, made the top 10 in 10 of his 20 tournaments—half—using his upgraded top-class iron shots as a weapon. He lacks only a victory, having finished 2nd and 3rd twice each.
His prize money earned this year totals a full $7,413,444 (about 10.965 billion won), and his career prize money of $38,311,684 ranks first among Korean players in history. His season standing is 7th in the FedEx Cup ranking, and his world ranking of 18th ties his personal best.
Kim will skip the 3M Open, which opens on the 23rd. Im Sung-jae, who finished The Open tied for 14th at 4-under-par, and Kim Joo-hyung, who missed the cut, are among those competing.
Fox, who became the star of the 154th The Open, sank a birdie putt of about 3.5 meters on the 18th hole to become the third major champion of New Zealand nationality in history. He held off Cameron Young of the United States by one stroke to grab the winner's prize money of $3.2 million (4.73 billion won). His world ranking, which had been 56th, soared to 22nd. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler of the United States finished tied for 4th at 7-under-par, and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland recorded a tie for 40th at 1-under-par.
