It had nearly reached 8 p.m. Thursday on the East Coast, and the first round of the 105th PGA Championship was in its final hour before darkness would halt play for the day after a frost delay pushed back tee times from the first groups onward. While Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott and a few others continued to push toward usurping clubhouse leader Bryson DeChambeau for the 18-hole lead, crowds were already thinning out.
Then Tom Kim fell in the mud.
No, literally, he fell in the mud.
The messy oops took place after Kim had hit his tee ball into the creek right of the fairway at the par-4 sixth hole. The cameras didn’t catch up to Kim until after he was already crawling back up the bank after presumably looking for his golf ball, and as he emerged from the tall grass, he was covered in black mud from his thighs down, likely the results of an unknowing few steps into some soft earth.
Out of context golf 🤣 pic.twitter.com/HbBP6XzcoN
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) May 18, 2023
Kim didn’t appear to fret too much, though. He immediately headed further down the creek and hopped back in, this time to rinse off. He then swapped his shirt for his jacket, kept his pant legs rolled up, put his shoes and socks back on and continued to play the hole.
After dropping, Kim went on to bogey the hole, his 15th of the day, to drop to 3 over.
As one can imagine, Kim going muddin’ during a major championship had Golf Twitter scrambling to post screenshots and memes. Here were some of the funniest:
NORMAL SPORT pic.twitter.com/33z7XwXe74
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) May 18, 2023
https://t.co/xw4ldnXezT pic.twitter.com/Hh2lOfv25c
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) May 18, 2023
Tom Kim found the Dead Sea in Rochester. pic.twitter.com/sTD3llTwLz
— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) May 18, 2023
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) May 18, 2023
Tom Kim just found out he went viral.
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) May 19, 2023
“everyone knows?!” pic.twitter.com/Vgpa2MhdFF