This one doesn’t involve any cheating or any famous golfer, but it is one of the more interesting rulings we’ve ever heard of. And Michael gave us an additional gift by drawing what happened. Have a look:

One of the crazier moments I’ve ever been a part of at a tournament. A true @KylePorterCBS normal sport moment:
Playing the 2010 western junior tournament, 2nd round, I was 20 ft away on the fringe, short and in line with the pin. One of my playing partners (3some) was 25 ft away… pic.twitter.com/5LpIHdx5Qo

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) September 12, 2023

OK, so we’re guessing he wasn’t an art major at Cal. Love the “bang!” though. But seriously, what a wild story from his amateur days.

Two golfers stroking a putt at the exact same time? And having their golf balls collide? What are the odds?

As Kim tells it, his putt from the fringe was going in before banging off his opponent’s golf ball. But it got even worse with the ensuing ruling from an official. Because Kim’s attempt was from closer to the hole (even though he was off the green), it had been his playing partner’s turn to putt. So therefore, Kim was assessed a two-stroke penalty for a hitting another golf ball being played on the green.

Had the balls not collided, there would have been no penalty for playing out of turn. And Kim says he went on to lose the tournament by three shots, which can be traced back to that two-stroke penalty plus his original putt being kept out of the hole. Ouch.

On the bright side, other golfers can use Kim’s account of what happened that day as a learning opportunity. It’s good to know the rules. Of course, this also could have all been avoided if he and his playing partner had just communicated better. Or, at all.

The post Here comes Michael Kim again! PGA Tour winner’s hilarious drawing describes one of the craziest moments ever appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On the face of it, it’s almost a little too obvious.

Aiming, in golf, is really hard. But aiming well is especially important on the greens. The good news, though, is that golf balls are created with a line on them. Use the line on the ball to make sure you’re aiming exactly where you want, and it’s problem solved, right?

Well, kind of.

It’s true that using a line can solve the problem of helping you aim where you’re intending to, it can also create another one along the way.

Michael Kim, the winner of the 2018 John Deere Classic, brought it up last week. His take on the line was an interesting one, and worth a follow-up.

Kim, like Tiger Woods, Brad Faxon and countless others, uses the line on the golf ball. He says it helps him aim better. But his advice for amateur golfers is to not bother using the line on the golf ball. Why?

Don’t use the line

The reason is pretty simple, ultimately: Kim says most golfers struggle with reading putts correctly, and often get into a habit of compensating by consistently pushing or pulling their putts. Using a line may help you aim better, but probably won’t improve your green-reading skills or the technical aspects of your putting stroke. At least not right away.

Which is why Kim says amateur golfers should ditch the line, and trust their instincts instead:

“Most amateur golfers shouldn’t use a line, because they’re usually not great at green reading and they rarely start their putts on line. They think they’re aiming at one spot but they’re really aiming at another. A line, for so many of them, may help them aim more accurately, but they’ll still struggle to start their putts on line and reading greens. I think that instead, they should tap more into where their brain and body is telling them where to aim. It will help them react a little better to the target. You don’t need to have a perfect stroke to make putts.”

Read the putt standing over the ball

Kim’s advice instead is to read the putt primarily when you’re standing over the golf ball…

“Let’s say I’m reading a putt that looks like a cup of break from behind the ball, and then I stand over the ball and it looks like two cups. I’ll always go with what I see when I’m over the ball, because that’s the point of view where I’ve seen putts roll into the hole from or miss from. Even though I think I’m pretty good at reading putts from behind the ball, my brain will sometimes pick up on something over the ball based on past experience.”

…and to hone these instincts in some different ways on the practice putting green.

The post Michael Kim: Don’t use the line on your golf ball — do this instead appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

UC Berkeley can lay claim to producing plenty of brilliant minds, but we’re most thankful to the school for churning out arguably the two best characters on Golf Twitter. Max Homa, of course, is the undisputed king in those parts, but former college teammate Michael Kim has emerged as a must-follow in recent years as well.

The 2013 Haskins Award winner as the US’s top golfer during his time as a Golden Bear, it hasn’t always been a smooth career on the PGA Tour. But no player consistently lets fans know what it’s like to be a pro golfer like the 2018 John Deere Classic champ.

Which leads us to the purpose of this post. Kim has made a habit of sharing course scouting reports ahead of tournaments. And his assessment ahead of the 2023 Open Championship is the most informative and thorough thing we’ve read about Royal Liverpool yet. See for yourself — and definitely click on the “Show more”:

My thoughts on front nine at Royal Liverpool and overall:

-I was watching highlights of 06 and 14 yesterday and it was amazing how brown it was in 06 so I’d thought I’d try and show the comparison on the 4th hole tee shot between 06, 14, 23. Right now it’s def closer to 14 and… pic.twitter.com/Sp02SDOjip

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) July 18, 2023

Glad to see someone is getting their money’s worth with a Twitter Blue subscription. That’s 506 words!

But seriously, there’s a lot of great info packed into that tweet. Most notably, this ain’t the Royal Liverpool we saw at the 2006 Open, where Tiger Woods famously won by hitting his driver only one time all week. The course is soft and getting softer by the minute, which won’t upset the 2014 champ and pre-tournament favourite Rory McIlroy.

It’s good to know that guys can “get on a run” with some of the early holes on the easier front nine. And it’s interesting to get Kim’s thoughts on Hoylake’s much-discussed internal out of bounds.

It’s not great to hear that we probably won’t see the “firm links golf” that only comes into play on the PGA Tour a couple weeks a year. But it is good to hear that Kim doesn’t believe there will be a “huge difference” between the morning and afternoon waves due to weather.

Of course, that last part could change in an instant. And Kim’s dispatch from the UK doesn’t tell us who is going to actually lift the claret jug come Sunday evening. But we’ll take all the help we can get. Thanks, Michael.

The post The Open Championship 2023: PGA Tour winner Kim offers his most detailed course scouting report yet for Royal Liverpool appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The former University of California star tweeted out an image from the practice green at the AT&T Bryson Nelson stating that there’s “purposeful sabotage” afoot after noticing something a bit off.

There has been a mystery player or caddy that has been writing 1% 2% 3% on the practice green for aimpoint… BUT they’re all OFF by about .5% which is a big deal if you’re trying to get a feel before a tournament round. Is it purposeful SABOTAGE??? #Controversy pic.twitter.com/wluDkN5MTT

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) May 8, 2023

“There has been a mystery player or caddy that has been writing 1% 2% 3% on the practice green for aimpoint…,” Kim tweeted. “BUT they’re all OFF by about .5% which is a big deal if you’re trying to get a feel before a tournament round. Is it purposeful SABOTAGE??? #Controversy”

Now, this most likely isn’t an Illuminati-esque plot, but it is odd that the numbers are off for a professional event. Could this be a fellow pro getting an advantage on his opposition or just a good old-fashioned blunder?

Most likely the second, but Kim is keeping everyone on their toes, which is always needed at the conspiracy-laden AT&T Byron Nelson.

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Fortunately for Cantlay, the discourse died down a bit this past weekend, mainly because the Zurich Classic didn’t have nearly the amount of eyeballs on it as both the Masters and the RBC Heritage did. It helped, too, that the slow-play attention shifted to the LPGA Tour, where rookie Lucy Li incurred a slow-play fine during the third round of the Chevron Championship.

But soon enough (our guess: the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow), Cantlay will reclaim his spot as public enemy No. 1 no matter how many excuses he, his buddies on tour or the tour itself makes for him. As fellow pro Michael Kim put it on Sunday evening, though, Cantlay is far from the only slow one out there and arguably not even close to being the slowest:

Y’all think Cantlay is slow… you should see some others… ??‍ I think there should be a monthly report of the slowest players on @PGATOUR. Public shaming won’t work on Cantlay but might work on others.

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) April 24, 2023

While they’re all fine points, the point about public shaming not working on Cantlay is as bang-on as it gets. Could it work on others? Unless it’s actually put into action, it’s hard to say.

In 2019, DP World Tour player Edoardo Molinari, brother of Francesco, tweeted out a slow-play report, one that featured names like Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau (it featured Francesco’s name, too). This was in response to a five-and-half-hour round that Molinari had played on the DP World Tour on a course “without rough”. There were nearly 150 names on the list Molinari sent out, but only three of them were fined, each $3,000.

Therein lies the problem. You can tweet out lists and public shame and fine financially well-off pros small sums of money all you want, but unless there’s a penalty that truly hurts a player’s score or his wallet, nothing will really change. All you have to do is listen to the way some players talk about the slow-play outrage to know that there is minimal interest in fixing the issue.

“All the things that have happened as of late have all been within the guidelines of the tour and what’s supposed to happen,” Xander Schauffele said this past Wednesday. “No one’s been penalised for slow play or anything of that nature. So we’re all operating within the framework of what the tour gives us. If enough people complain or if enough tour pros complain, that’s something the tour needs to address to either make it faster or change the time par. Without any context, it gets tricky because when you set up golf courses with Stimp 13 or 14 greens, tees in interesting positions, and pins in tough spots, it’s just going to take longer.

“We’re not playing like the local muni that sort of the average Joe compares our time par to,” he added. “We’re playing for a couple million — you know, $3.6 million. If you’re going to spend an extra minute to make sure you put yourself in the right spot, we’re going to do it.”

Cantlay more or less agreed, referring to the pace-of-play numbers not changing much over the last decade-plus.

“Trying to speed it up, I’d be curious to know how they’d want to do that,” Cantlay said. “I played the last two tournaments, and my group hasn’t been warned at all. So we’ve been in position the entire time. I don’t know how you would want even the groups that I’ve been in to play faster when our groups are in position and can’t go faster because the group in front of us is right in front of us.”

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By Mike Stachura
Michael Kim’s dominant win at the John Deere Classic got him the last ticket to the Open Championship this week, and he says that win was fueled by a new club that he might end up not using that much at Carnoustie.

The good news for Kim is he’s found another new club that he’s excited about this week.

Kim, who won the John Deere Classic with a record-setting 27-under-par score for an eight-stroke victory, was powered by a recent switch to Titleist’s prototype TS2 driver, becoming the first player to win with the new Titleist driver set to debut in a couple of months. The shorter-hitting Kim averaged 295 yards off the tee last week at the John Deere about six yards longer than his average heading into the tournament.

“I usually don’t make too many changes mid-season,” said Kim, who switched to the new Titleist driver at the Travelers Championship. “Once I find a set that I like I usually stick with it for the entire year at least. But I liked [the TS2] as soon as I hit the first four or five balls. The biggest difference I saw was off mis-hits. It was flying way straighter and way farther than the mis-hits on the older one, and you really didn’t see that big of a difference in ballspeed numbers when I hit it a little on the toe or a little on the heel.”

But with Carnoustie’s driving holes playing more like highways than fairways, Kim made a change in his set makeup that he believes may help him more than his new driver. Talking to a former Open champion on the flight over from the John Deere, Kim was convinced that an extra Titleist T-MB driving iron in his bag (replacing his 816 3-hybrid) might be more effective. Kim also carries a T-MB 4-iron, which combines an L-shaped face insert with tungsten heel and toe weighting in its hollow-body construction.

“Zach Johnson told me you should at least try one, and as soon as I hit a few golf balls I liked it,” Kim said. “Then, when I went to the course, I really liked it. That’s how firm everything is. I think I’m going to be hitting that off the tee quite a bit this week.”

Whereas his attitude at the John Deere was to be aggressive at every turn thanks to the newfound confidence with the driver, Kim thinks he’ll take a more conservative approach this week.

“This week is almost a completely different mindset,” he said. “You get in these bunkers, they’re true hazards. They’re a shot to a shot and a half penalty it seems like, maybe two if you get real unlucky. A lot of them you just kind of want to stay short of them, hit a lot of irons, especially downwind. If you hit a low 3-iron or 4-iron it’s definitely going to go at least 280, 290. It just depends on the wind, but you might not hit too many drivers this week. Might rely on your driving iron.”

Regardless of what clubs he hits, though, Kim finds himself in a new place both physically and emotionally. Carnoustie will be his “first links golf experience at all.”

“Usually on the PGA Tour, when you play the hole, you kind of know exactly what you’re going to do game-plan wise, definitely going to hit driver here, definitely going to hit 3-wood here, if it’s into the wind I’m going to hit driver here and if it’s downwind I’m going to hit 3-wood. You have a pretty set plan headed into the tournament week. But here, I mean, you could hit four or five different clubs for tee shots, especially with how the wind is, everything kind of changes.”

But he also comes into this new experience with a confidence that he hasn’t had before as a professional. Coming into the John Deere, he had only made nine cuts in 22 events, including three straight missed cuts in a row. His 27-underperformance at John Deere was a 40-stroke improvement over his score in relation to par for the entire year combined. In one week, he feels almost like he’s on a golf trip to Scotland, playing with house money.

“It is part confidence and part comfort, too,” he said. “The last few weeks I’ve been feeling like I’m playing with my job on the line every week and now that I’ve kind of got that secured, everything is a lot less stressful and the confidence is a big part of it.

“This week I think I’m just going to enjoy the challenge of links golf. It’s going to be a lot of thinking involved before I actually hit the shot, but I’m going to try to enjoy the experience as much as I can.”

Kim tees off with Chez Reavie and Ryuko Tokimatsu at 9:04 a.m. (ET) Thursday.

The post The Open 2018: Michael Kim rode new driver to win John Deere Classic, now adding another new club to battle Carnoustie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
If you needed more proof that the PGA Tour is as deep as it has ever been, Michael Kim provided it on Sunday at the John Deere Classic, winning in dominant fashion despite having missed five of his last six cuts entering the week.

Kim’s rounds of 63, 64, 64 and his final-round 66 gave him the 72-hole tournament scoring record of 27-under 257, one better than three-time John Deere winner Steve Stricker’s total of 258 in 2010. The win makes Kim the 10th first-time tour winner this season.

Kim, who not only overcame poor play of late but a gruelling week full of weather delays, was understandably exasperated afterwards.

“I’ve been running on fumes the entire back nine,” said Kim. “Just super thankful, thankful to my parents, to my team, my coaches, my friends, my family. It’s been a tough first half of the year. To be able to finish out in style like this, it means a lot.”

While he’s had his moments this season, including three top-25 finishes, it’s been more than tough for Kim. He had missed 14 of 22 cuts, made less than $300,000 and had shown nothing to indicate a week like this was coming. He had ranked inside the top 100 in only one major strokes-gained category (putting). At TPC Deere Run he ranked first in the same category, in addition to ranking first in total strokes-gained, putts per green in regulation and scrambling. He made just three bogeys all week, none of them coming in his final round.

“Even the last couple weeks I felt like the game was there, it’s getting there, I just felt like I needed just a couple good starts to rounds or a couple good swings,” he said. “I felt like it was going to switch, and I just got off to a great start on Thursday and kept it going on Sunday.”

With the win, Kim earns the lone spot available this week for the Open Championship at Carnoustie, where he’ll be making his first Open start and just his second major championship start. His first played in a major at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, where he tied for 17th to finish as low amateur.

Four players tied for second at 19-under 265, including Francesco Molinari, whose fine form of late makes him an intriguing player to watch at Carnoustie. It will be his 11th career start at the Open, where he’s finished in the top 10 only once.

Harold Varner III finished in solo sixth thanks to a three-under 68 that got him to 18-under 266. It’s his second consecutive finish of sixth or better, which he’s never done in his tour career.

The post Michael Kim sets 72-hole scoring record at John Deere Classic, becomes the 10th first-time winner on tour this year appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By E. Michael Johnson
Michael Kim finished as the low amateur at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, where he tied for 17th as a 19-year-old. The expectation, fittingly, was that Kim would turn into a prominent professional golfer. Some five years later and a day after turning 25, golf fans are seeing that talent the former University of California-Berkeley golfer put on display as Kim dismantled TPC Deere Run to win the John Deere Classic by eight strokes over Bronson Burgoon, Joel Dahmen, Sam Ryder and Francesco Molinari.

Perhaps the most stunning stat in his 27-under-par performance is that Kim actually made three bogeys. But in also making 30 birdies, Kim ranked first in strokes gained/putting (a crazy-good 3.379, meaning he picked up more than 13 strokes on the field on the greens for the week); first in strokes gained overall; T-2 in driving accuracy; third in greens in regulation and T-1 in scrambling.

Off the tee, Kim was working with Titleist’s new TS2 driver, a club first introduced to the company’s tour staff at the U.S. Open. Kim put it into play at the Quicken Loans National. The win is the first for Titleist’s new driver on any professional tour.

Kim also employs a split set of irons with the hollow-body 716 T-MB serving as his 4-iron, rounding out his set with 718 AP2 irons. The shafts in his irons are True Temper’s XP 115, a shaft designed for a mid-ball flight for stronger swingers who want something slightly lighter than the standard weight used in steel shafts.

As with any player, the golf ball plays a major role but is often overlooked. However, Kim’s use of Titleist’s Pro V1x helped the company reached a milestone at the John Deere. Titleist, citing the Darrell Survey, said that 81 percent of the John Deere field (126 of 156 players) used a Titleist golf ball, marking the first time the company reached over 80 percent, given records dating back to 1996. The next closest was the 1996 U.S. Open (79.5 percent).

What Michael Kim had in the bag at the John Deere Classic

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Driver: Titleist TS2 (Aldila Rogue Black 60X), 10.5 degrees

3-wood: Titleist 917F2, 16.5 degrees

Hybrid: Titleist 816H1, 21 degrees

Irons (4): Titleist 716 T-MB; (5-PW): Titleist 718 AP2

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 (52, 56, 60 degrees)

Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist GSS 350

The post The clubs Michael Kim used to win the John Deere Classic appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
On multiple occasions, this season, a relatively unknown player has given himself a legitimate chance at a breakthrough victory through 54 holes. Last week it was Kelly Kraft at The Greenbrier, and the week before that Mexico’s Abraham Ancer held a share of the 54-hole lead at the Quicken Loans National. Then there was Andrew Putnam, who had the unfortunate task of going up against Dustin Johnson at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in the final round.

What all three had in common is that Sunday didn’t go quite as planned, leaving them empty-handed walking off the 72nd green. Michael Kim, another young, under-the-radar player, hopes to buck that trend this week at the John Deere Classic and has given himself a good chance at doing so. After opening with rounds of 63 and 64, Kim fired a third-round seven-under 64 at TPC Deere Run on Saturday despite two suspensions of play due to inclement weather. It puts him 22-under 191, extending his lead to five heading into the final round.

Kim, who turned 25 on Saturday, has finished in the top 10 just once in 83 starts on the PGA Tour, that result coming in October of 2016 when he opened his season with a T-3 at the Safeway Open. Since then the 2013 Haskins Award winner has finished no better than T-12 (2017 Houston Open), and he’s recently missed five of his last six cuts. It’s been a below average year overall for Kim, but he could make it a memorable one with one more solid round on Sunday.

Kim’s closest pursuer is Bronson Burgoon, a former standout at Texas A&M who hasn’t found much success in his limited time on the PGA Tour. Burgoon vaulted up the leaderboard on Friday with a nine-under 62, then backed it up with a five-under 66 on Saturday and now finds himself in solo second at 17-under 196.

Matt Jones’ five-under 66 has him in solo third at 16-under 197. He’s in search of his second victory on tour, the last coming in miraculous, walk-off fashion at the 2014 Houston Open.

After struggling in the final round at The Greenbrier and eventually tying for fifth, Harold Varner III has put himself in contention once again, posting a five-under 66. He’s in solo fourth at 15-under 198, seven back.

Andres Romero, who is making just his second start on tour this season, carded a seven-under 64 to get to 14-under 199. He’s joined by Sam Ryder, who shot a six-under 65.

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