Sihwan

Kim

The 32-year-old Florida-based South Korean native stayed steady with rounds of 69-70-69-68 to finish at 8-under 276, eight shots behind winner Nacho Elvira. The finish marked Kim’s fourth consecutive cut made and ninth in 14 starts this season. The Stanford alum missed the cut in his first two starts of 2021, at the Qatar Masters and Kenya Open, but strung together a five-event streak that started with a T-57 at the Kenya Savannah Classic and included a T-18 at the Tenerife Open. Last season, Kim went 7-for-11 in cuts made and posted one top 10 with a T-9 at the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open, but in 94 European Tour starts, he’s yet to get that first win. His best result to date came in 2018 when he placed third at the Hero Indian Open, and he has just one other career top-five result -- a T-5 at the 2019 Scandinavian Invitation. Kim will make his tournament debut in this week’s ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle GC and Massereene GC in Northern Ireland, but it won’t be the first time he’s seen Galgorm. He missed the cut in 2016 and 2017 two Challenge Tour starts.

The Florida-based South Korean native posted four straight sub-par rounds at Golf Costa Adeje and had just six bogeys against 20 birdies over 72 holes to finish 14 under for the week and inside the top 20. Kim had a similarly solid performance the week prior at Gran Canaria, shooting under par all for days en route to a T-45 finish. The Stanford alum missed the cut in his first two starts of 2021, at the Qatar Masters and Kenya Open, but his current streak started with a T-57 at the Kenya Savannah Classic. Last season, Kim went 7-for-11 in cuts made and posted one top 10 with a T-9 at the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open, but in 86 European Tour starts, he’s yet to get that first win. His best result to date came in 2018 when he placed third at the Hero Indian Open, and he has just one other career top-5 results with a T-5 at the 2019 Scandinavian Invitation.

The World No. 301 swapped a birdie and bogey at the second and third holes, but that was the final time he did anything other than move in a forward direction. He ticked the seventh and ninth before the turn, then the tenth, 12th and 14th on the way home. He starts the final day alongside Rasmus Hojgaard and just one swing back of the trio of leaders, Calum Hill, Thomas Detry and Antoine Rozner – all five of them are yet to win at this level. “I stayed patient and made some pretty good putts in the middle of my round which got me going,” he said afterward. “If there’s no wind like today, the scores are going to be low tomorrow and we’ll just have to see how the wind blows then. Whatever, you still got to play well. I’ve been bad off the tee the whole week but putted really well, my good speed has been the key.”

With the afternoon session well underway, that second 67 of the week puts the 31-year-old just two behind clubhouse leader Calum Hill of Scotland. The former US Junior Amateur champion (2004) had a wilder ride in round one, posting an eagle along with a double bogey-6 but arrived at the same score today thanks to five birdies and 13 pars. He may feel he left some out there having birdied just one of the four par fives but gains at 5, 6, 7, 15 and 16 took him to double digits under par and in position for a weekend title challenge. The Korean-born American was fifth at the Scandinavian Invitation in August while he provided one of the best stories at Q School last month by scoring a closing 63 to jump 38 places to T17 and claim his European Tour card for this season.

Kim played his way into 2019 status through his play on the Asian Tour and he’s parlayed that into an 11-for-19 record with a pair of top 10s. Unfortunately, that’s good for just 132nd in the Race to Dubai standings so he’ll need to maintain today’s momentum if he wants a chance to crack the top 117 by week’s end. The 30-year-old Korean-born American made it look easy today with 13 pars and 5 birdies. That includes par-3 birdies at the 8th and 13th. Kim now sits at 126th in the live projected Race to Dubai standings.

The American has made the cut in nine of his 15 events this season and his best result came just two weeks ago when posting tied fifth in the Scandinavian Invitation. He followed it with MC in Switzerland last week despite opening with a 69. Looking at his stats, Kim’s iron play has been strong; he ranks 36th in GIR this season and has hit 75% in each of the last three events. It’s his first start at the course although he did manage T21 on his last trip to Germany in the BMW International Open so Kim has some sleeper appeal.

This is the Korean-born American’s 12th start of the season on the European Tour and he has three top 25s. The latest came via tied 21st in last week’s BMW International Open where he closed with a 66 and he matched that tally today. Kim is playing Valderrama for the first time but took to it like a duck to water as he cruised to 6-under with birdies at 1, 4, 7, 8, 10 and 11. Valderrama bit back a little as Kim played the final seven holes in 1-over after six pars and a bogey-4 at 15. Nevertheless, this is Kim’s lowest first round of the season.

T20 in the season-opening Hong Kong Open, Kim might have sniffed the chance of a solid year after he added two top tens in Asian Tour events before Christmas. But he is 1-for-4 on the European Tour in the calendar year, with the made-cut nothing better than T41 in the World Super 6. He does, however, have fond memories of the track. Twelve months ago he improved his position with every round going T19-T8-T7-T3 as he carded 70-70-72-68. He’s visited India just twice and was T18 in the 2017 Panasonic Open.

A first start at the course on the European Tour, but Kim will have fond memories of playing the Challenge Tour’s Oman Classic (the tournament which pre-dated the Grand Final there) in 2013. It was a year of tricky wind conditions and he coped admirably, striking 71-74-68-71 to be top ten after 18, 54 and 72 holes (he finished T9). He squeezes into this week’s field off the back of Asian Tour rankings, a consequence of five top three finishes last year. He missed the cut in the Vic Open, was T41 in the World Super 6 Perth and has just three top tens in 53 starts on the European Tour stretching back till 2012.

The 30-year-old American had a full season on the European Tour in 2014 and four full Challenge Tour campaigns either side (with just the one providing graduation). Since late 2017 he has concentrated on the Asian Tour and with some success. Indeed he’s had seven top tens in that period, plus one in Japan and another back on the Challenge Tour. With just three European Tour top tens in 47 starts you wonder about him this week, but three of his eight top 20s have come in his last four starts (all within the last 12 months) and his only previous visit down under? T9 in the Perth International.