Eight months later, Kim recalls that discussion, too. In the moment, she had come to a decision. She was done stressing about being winless through 29 career major-championship starts, making her the winningest active player on tour without a major title. It’s not that it didn’t matter. It was just that she was tired of letting it matter too much. Instead, she was going to do everything in her power to stay calm, play golf and trust her game.

“If you tell yourself [this is your approach] before the week starts, it is much easier to keep it through the week,” Fusco said.

No one will ever know for certain if Kim would have grabbed her breakthrough major the following Sunday, shooting a final-round 63 at famed Aronimink Golf Club, had she not vowed to take it easy on herself. But it certainly couldn’t have hurt her cause.

The irony was that she didn’t necessarily make it easy on herself entering the final round. While holding a two-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round, Kim somehow forgot to set her alarm that night. Come Sunday morning, she woke up 30 minutes late. While rushed, Kim stuck with her goals—and with her new mindset.

“I did what I planned, completely,” Kim said. “It’s the first time I did what I imagined before the round.”

MORE: Nelly Korda wins second LPGA title of 2021 with 18th-hole birdie

Kim’s triumph was five years in the making, the South Korean native becoming an LPGA Tour member in 2015. But more directly, it could be traced back to 2019 when back pain forced her to change her swing and she decided it was also time to change her approach on the course. Kim was going to focus more on the process, rather than results, even if her play didn’t suggest she needed the attitude adjustment.

Before 2019, Kim won seven times on the LPGA Tour, including the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, where she posted an eye-popping 31-under-par 257, the best 72-hole score shot on either the LPGA or PGA Tour. It’s the lone golf accomplishment she highlights in her Instagram bio.

“Results follow process,” Kim said of the need to change her attitude. “Every tournament, I really focus on how perfectly am I following the process. A couple of tournaments, it wasn’t perfect, but the result was still good. I like the result, but didn’t like the process.”

To help frame her mindset, Kim has taken time to observe how other great athletes approach their craft. Along with her golf idol, Annika Sorenstam, Kim watches YouTube videos of how NBA greats LeBron James and Michael Jordan, and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps prepare for competition.

“I don’t really know about the rules of basketball,” Kim joked. “It’s different when a legendary player mentions something about it [their preparation], I can feel it. It’s different. I just want to listen and watch.”

Kim most admires how they don’t settle once they achieve success. “I’m impressed with their attitude,” she said. “Even the good players, when they make a lot of money, they stay hungry [for more success].”

Caddie Paul Fusco knew that once Kim had a breakthrough win at the 2019 CME Tour Championship, a major wouldn’t be far behind. Patrick Smith

The training helped usher in a newfound consistency. Starting in October 2019 at the Volunteers of America Classic and through this year’s LPGA Drive On Championship at Ocala in February, Kim went 16 straight events finishing in the top 25, including 11 top-10s and three wins to bring her current total to 12. Her previous best top-25 streak was seven tournaments in 2015-16.

Asked how Kim found the zone for the extended stretch, Fusco answered wryly, “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”

It turned out to be the million-and-a-half-dollar question at the 2019 CME Group Tour Championship. Kim won with a dramatic birdie on the last hole to take home the biggest first-place check in LPGA history. She was blissfully unaware in the moment that the putt was to win the biggest tournament of her career to that point and a gargantuan sum of cash. It’s a memory Kim leaned on as a pillar to the confidence to win a major championship.

“After I won the CME, I know how to play under huge pressure,” Kim said. “When I played at KPMG, I kept thinking about the CME Tournament. It felt normal.”

Fusco declared after the CME victory that Kim’s first major championship would be soon after. Two major starts later, Kim proved Fusco to be Nostradamus.

“She knew she could do it already, but to have that experience and come out on top, that cemented the idea and gave her confidence,” Fusco said. “So, coming out of that I felt, yes, she’s always been ready but now that really topped it.”

To come out on top at the KPMG, however, required Kim to put aside the one other time she held a 54-hole lead at a major during her career, at the 2015 ANA Inspiration when she shot a 75 Sunday to finish T-4.

And in her way on Sunday at Aronimink was Hall of Famer Inbee Park. The two Korean natives had traded titles ever since Kim joined the LPGA. Park kept the 2015 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship out of Kim’s grasp, ripping the 36-hole lead from her after a third-round 66 at Westchester Country Club to win her third consecutive PGA Championship. Park closed with a five-under round Sunday to win by five.

Six years later, Park again shot a five-under 67 on Sunday at Aronimink. But Kim improved her final-round score by eight shots, closing with a 63.

“Sei Young was just really untouchable, and she played really, really good golf today,” Park said afterwards. “That’s how a champion plays a final round, so it was good to see that.”

As 2021 plays out, Kim is wrestling with finding her final-round gear once more. When she’s on, Kim downloads her targets at 5G speeds, taking under five seconds before turning her head back down and swinging freely.

If she’s off? Kim’s perusing the target at old AOL dial-up speeds, processing with clinks and clanks as if trying to download her line from outer space as she glares for over 10 seconds. She takes in anything but the shot in front of her.

“[I think about] after the tournament, what I’m having for dinner,” Kim explained. “What I will do later. I think about the future, not now.”

As she approaches defending her first major title, Kim hopes to fall back on the calmness that worked so well last October. The hot humid conditions at Atlanta Athletic Club this week will be far different from the crisp fall weather in Pennsylvania.

Should she achieve her next goal of staying in the present, and Kim walk away with another major title, one can only imagine others watching YouTube videos of Kim’s approach, even if they don’t understand golf.

The post How Sei Young Kim figured out a way to win her elusive first major appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Paisley
The Hollywood sign looms large over Wilshire Country Club, where the LPGA’s Hugel-Air Premia LA Open begins on Wednesday. It’s apropos of the drama that could be playing out this week and throughout the spring and summer on the LPGA Tour.

Since July 2019, Jin Young Ko has held the No. 1 spot on the Rolex Women’s Rankings, the stretch including 82 weeks of active play and eight weeks when the rankings were frozen during the COVID-19 hiatus. Yet her nearest rival, World No. 2 Inbee Park, has been steadily creeping closer to Ko on the points list in recent weeks. Park, who won her 22nd career LPGA title at the Kia Classic last month, trails Ko by an average of .67 points after opening the season 2.51 points behind. In addition to her Kia win, Park was T-7 at the ANA Inspiration and tied for runner-up last week at the Lotte Championship.

It isn’t just Park who is putting heat on Ko. Sei Young Kim and Nelly Korda, Nos. 3 and 4 in the latest Rolex Ranking, have both gotten off to solid starts in 2021. Kim also finished T-2 at the Lotte and T-3 at the ANA, and has posted top-25s in 17 of her last 19 starts dating back to October 2019.

“Yeah, definitely that’s my biggest goal, and I keep push myself,” said Kim, a 13-time tour winner, of becoming World No. 1. “Yeah, I wish I could reach what I goal this year.”

Korda, also T-2 last week, won earlier this year at the Gainbridge LPGA, was T-3 at ANA and T-10 at Kia. She’s the trying to become the first U.S. player to reach No. 1 since Stacy Lewis in 2014.

“It’s a cool accomplishment to be the highest-ranked American, but definitely my No. 1 goal as a professional golfer is to be the No. 1 golfer in the world,” Korda said early last year.

All three golfers will be competing this week in Los Angeles, the tournament that started in 2018 but was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic having 15 of the top 18 players in the world in the field.

Ko has been No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s Rankings since July 2019. Jed Jacobsohn

MORE: Lydia Ko ends winless drought with romp at Lotte Championship

While the race for No. 1 is tightening, it’s not as if Ko is making it easy for her rivals to continue their pursuit. The 25-year-old from South Korea has finished in the top seven in three of her four starts in 2021, with two solo fourth-place finishes at the Gainbridge LPGA and Kia Classic.

Ko did not return to the United States when the LPGA Tour initially resumed play last summer, competing on the KLPGA Tour until eventually making the trip from her home country in November. At that time, it was Kim who crept up on Ko’s lead at No. 1 by winning the KPMG Women’s PGA and the Pelican Women’s Championship in consecutive starts. But Ko responded with a runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open and a victory at the CME Group Tour Championship. By taking the $1 million check in the season-ending tournament, Ko claimed the 2020 money title in four starts.

This week, Ko can lean on good vibes from her previous starts at Wilshire. She finished T-5 and T-2 in 2018 and 2019, respectively, hinting that the venue might be one where she can hold her own.

“I’m just trying to play my game, and focus on my game, not the other players,” Ko said on Tuesday. “Even Sei Young, or Inbee, or Nelly, or the other players, I don’t care really.”

Maybe she doesn’t, but those giving chase do. And they’re not likely to give up until they catch her.

The post As the LPGA season heats up, an intriguing race for World No. 1 is brewing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
There were a few wayward shots later in Sei Young Kim’s third round at the CME Group Tour Championship on Saturday that up foreshadowed what was to come in her final round.

Kim scrambled her way out of trouble in Round 3 and entered Sunday’s final round with a one-shot lead over Jin Young Ko. But good birdie chances largely eluded her and she finished with a 72, five shots behind Ko.

But it wasn’t all bad.

While defending her title at the CME would have been sweet, and collecting the $1.1 million winner’s cheque even sweeter, Kim walked away with what she called the most important accomplishment of her career: the 2020 Rolex Player of the Year.

She came into the CME six points behind Inbee Park in the Player of the Year competition, an award Park won in 2013. Kim needed a finish of fifth or better and for Park to finish outside the top 10 to win the title. Park finished T-35, and Kim’s T-2 finish earned her enough points to take the title.

A 12-time winner on the LPGA Tour, Kim has long been a great, though largely obscure, player. Until 2020, the 27-year-old South Korean was the highest-ranked player in the world without a major championship. She took care of that by winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in October.

Add in her CME win in 2019, and the Player of the Year honours in 2020, and Kim’s talent no longer is such a secret.

The post Sei Young Kim, the LPGA’s new Player of the Year, finally commands the attention she deserves appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
Sei Young Kim entered the CME Group Tour Championship coming off a low. She’d just shot her worst LPGA Tour round of the year: a five-over 76 during the Monday final round of the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing T-20. But after she arrived in Naples, Fla., it was like it never happened. After rounds of 67-69-67, she leads the CME Group Tour Championship by one over Jin Young Ko.

Whatever felt off in Houston is gone from her game now. On Saturday, Kim shot 5-under-par 67 in Naples, Fla., to take a one-shot lead at 13 under over Jin Young Ko (69) heading into the final round of the LPGA’s season finale.

“I[‘ve] got [a] good feeling, because I wasn’t good shot striking [the] ball the last week, but I try to figure [it] out,” Kim said. “I got something in there, I was able to play very solid this week.”

If Kim were to win, she’d take home more than the $1.1 million winner’s check—the biggest on the LPGA. She’s also playing for the Rolex player of the year honours. Kim entered the tournament six points behind Inbee Park. A victory and the 30 points that come with it would make her the player of the year. Before the tournament began, the 12-time LPGA winner said it’d be the marque accomplishment of her career thus far.

“It’s a big motivator to me because I never had the player of the year in my life. So that’s biggest in my career if I did that,” Kim said.

Michael Reaves
Jin Young Ko plays her shot from the seventh tee during the third round of the CME Group Tour Championship.

Kim is comfortable on Tiburon Golf Club. She drained a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th to win the event in 2019. Ko doesn’t have the same history, never having finished in the top 10 at Tiburon.

Ko didn’t play much on the LPGA in 2020. Due to the spreading of COVID-19, she spent the majority of the season at home in South Korea, playing on the LPGA Tour of Korea. By the time she returned, she’d been away from the LPGA for almost a year. But she’s playing like she never left.

She finished fifth in her second event, the Volunteers of America Classic, and then T-2 in her third event, the U.S. Women’s Open. The field at the CME is decided by a season-long points list. To get into the field off of just three events was a feat. To be entering the final round a shot off the lead is another level of impressive. Further proof for why she’s the No. 1 player in the world.

Ko and Kim will play in the same group again on Sunday, something they’re comfortable with. They competed on the KLPGA at the same time, and Ko says they were paired together a lot. They know each other well and their families got to know each other, too.

But even though Kim was playing with a friend on Saturday, her seriousness didn’t waver. Ko joked that any attempt to chat didn’t go very far with Kim while they were playing.

“I think she was like too focused on the course,” Ko said, laughing.

With player of the year honours and another huge paycheck on the line, it’s safe to bet Kim won’t be overly chatty on Sunday, either.

The post Sei Young Kim chasing Player of the Year honours with one-shot lead at CME Group Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
December marks the final month of the year and with it brings the final major of 2020 with this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston.

Originally scheduled for June 4-7, the USGA postponed the event in April because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Doing so means the tournament will be held in December for the first time. It’s also being contested on two courses—the Jackrabbit and Cypress Creek courses—during the first two rounds to help offset the reduced daylight this time of year and keep the championship on schedule.

This year also marks just the second time the championship is being held in Texas. The last was in 1991 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, where Meg Mallon defeated Pat Bradley by two strokes to win her first of two Women’s Open titles.

As for the field, the defending champion is 24-year-old Korean standout Jeongeun Lee6, who captured the 2019 title at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina on her way to being named LPGA Rookie of the Year. It’s been nearly two decades since a player has successfully defended at the Women’s Open, with Karrie Webb the last to do so in 2001. There are also 42 players in the field making their U.S. Women’s Open debut this year. Only four players, however, have won the event on their first try, the last being In Gee Chun in 2015.

So who do we like this week in Houston? Here are eight players to watch and a pretty good longshot.

Sei Young Kim
One of just two players with multiple victories on the LPGA Tour this season, Kim arrives in Houston on a hot streak having won each of her last two starts. In October at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the 27-year-old from South Korea pulled away from the field when she shot a final-round 63 at Aronimink to win by five over Inbee Park and capture her first major title. Two weeks later, a third-round 64 helped lift Kim to a three-stroke victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship. Only once, however, has Kim, ranked second in the Rolex Rankings, finished in the top 10 of the U.S. Women’s Open, tying for eighth in 2017 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

Patrick Smith

• • •

Danielle Kang
The other player with multiple wins during the abbreviated LPGA season is Kang, whose two victories came at the LPGA Drive On Championship and the Marathon LPGA Classic, the tour’s first two tournaments after it resumed play in July. The 28-year-old American has cooled since but did tie for 11th at the ANA Inspiration in September and finished second at the LPGA Drive On Championship Reynolds Lake Oconee in October. Ranked fourth in the world, Kang also has a major on her resume, having won the KPMG Women’s PGA in 2017.

Mike Ehrmann

• • •

Jin Young Ko
The top-ranked woman in the world, Ko hasn’t won a tournament since October 2019 back on the Korean LPGA tour. That capped a year in which she also won four LPGA events, including two majors (the ANA and Evian Championship). Because of the pandemic, the 25-year-old has spent most of this year in her native Korean playing on the KLPGA, where she’s had four finishes of T-8 or better in six starts. Also of note: In each of the last three years at the U.S. Women’s Open she has finished in the top 20.

Handout

• • •

Inbee Park
The seven-time major champion—including wins at the 2008 and 2013 Women’s Opens—has been remarkably consistent in 2020. In 12 worldwide starts the 32-year-old has a win (at the ISPS Women’s Australian Open) and six other finishes in the top 10, which included the aforementioned runner-up at the KPMG Women’s PGA and a runner-up over the weekend at the Volunteers of America Classic. She also finished fourth at the Women’s British Open at Royal Troon.

Andy Lyons/PGA of America

• • •

Nelly Korda
The younger of the sister duo is the highest-ranked American in the field at No. 3, but the last time we saw in action was at the KPMG Women’s PGA in October when she withdrew before the second round because of discomfort in her back. The 22-year-old was the favourite in that event after having lost in a playoff at the ANA in September. Before the WD, she’d been on a roll with three straight finishes in the top five.

Michael Cohen

• • •

Jessica Korda
The 27-year-old had a share of the lead at the halfway mark last week at the Volunteers of America Classic but rounds of 72-76 over the weekend dropped her to T-19. In the start before that, she finished tied for sixth at the Pelican Women’s Championship. Like Nelly, Jessica is still searching for her first major title to go with five career LPGA wins. They’re one of two sets of sisters in the field this year, joining Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn.

Mike Ehrmann

• • •

Lexi Thompson
Adding to her lone major title, the 2014 ANA, has been a focus of the 25-year-old, who has had her chances. At last year’s U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston, Thompson entered the final round just a stroke off the lead but bogeyed three of her first four holes before carding a 73 to finish two strokes back of winner Jeongeun Lee6 and in a tie for second with So Reon Yu and Angel Yin. This year, Thompson was two strokes off the lead going into the final round of the ANA Inspiration but shot 69 to finish two shots out of a playoff and solo fourth for what has been her only top 10 of 2020 so far.

Streeter Lecka

• • •

Angela Stanford
The 43-year-old Texan had quietly been playing well in 2020, with two top-10 finishes and four top 20s in her eight previous starts. The quietly part disappeared on Sunday when she stormed back with a closing 67 to win the Volunteers of America Classic outside Dallas, her seventh career win and first since her victory at the 2018 Evian Championship. The oldest winner in Women’s Open history is Babe Zaharias, who took the title in her comeback from cancer in 1954 at age 43 and seven days. It’s a record Stanford could break if she keeps things going in Houston.

Stuart Franklin

RELATED: Stacy Lewis relishes playing the U.S. Women’s Open on her home course

• • •

Yealimi Noh
Unexpected winners have claimed two of the three women’s majors played in 2020, counting Sophia Popov (ranked 304th in the world) at the AIG Women’s Open in August and Mirim Lee (ranked 94th) at the ANA in September. Noh is 61st on the Rolex Rankings and making her Women’s Open debut. Yet the 19-year-old California native, who two years ago won the U.S. Girls’ Junior has already shown an ability to adapt to the pro game quickly. She shared the lead entering the final round of at the Volunteers of America Classic over the weekend and closed with a respectable 70 only to see Stanford come from nowhere to take the title. Noh’s runner-up showing comes after tying for third at the Cambia Portland Classic in September. A victory in Houston would also make her the youngest winner of the U.S. Women’s Open in the event’s history, surpassing Inbee Park, who captured the 2008 title at the age of 19 years, 11 months and 17 days.

Steve Dykes

The post 8 players to watch in Houston (plus an interesting longshot) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
The stretch coming up in women’s golf is a big one. In the last two weeks of competition this season, from Dec. 10-20, the LPGA Tour will be competing for $10.5 million. And after her unyielding performance at the Pelican Women’s Championship, Sei Young Kim might be peaking at exactly the right moment to cash in on that historic amount of money.

The South Korean on Sunday won by three shots over Ally McDonald, her 12th LPGA Tour victory.

Kim led by one after the second round and by five after the third. She maintained that five-shot lead throughout the majority of the final round, but an 18th hole bogey and a McDonald birdie reduced her margin of victory to three.

The win was Kim’s second of the 2020 season and second in a row. It was the first tournament Kim has played since her victory at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink. That was her first major win, one that combined with her victory on Sunday gives her a measure of momentum heading into the final major of the year, the U.S. Women’s Open.

It is unusual for pros to attempt to peak in December, but the scheduling reshuffling that has occurred because of the coronavirus pandemic has the U.S. Women’s Open’s starting on Dec. 10, followed by the CME Group Tour Championship the next week. Having the two biggest purses of the year land at the end of the season opens up the opportunity for someone to find a lucrative timely groove.

“If I keep doing same as last two tournaments I think, yeah, that’s possible,” Kim said of the potential for momentum to carry her through to a successful end-of-season run.

Kim’s strong form and growing confidence heading into that stretch is further boosted by the fact that she’s defending the CME Group Tour Championship, played each year at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla. Having shed the title of the highest-ranked player on tour without a major, she potentially is an even greater threat heading into the U.S. Women’s Open.

Kim has found that with notable wins, including the CME last year and the KPMG this year, she has been able to relax more on the golf course – a key to her playing well, she said. That combined with her newfound confidence should make her a favourite as the season closes.

“After [I won] CME and then I got more confident,” Kim said. “I think that major win [will be] very help[ful] for another U.S. Open major tournament.”

The post Is Sei Young Kim peaking at exactly the right moment? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
There wasn’t anything anyone could do to overtake Sei Young Kim at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The 27-year-old from South Korea held a two-shot lead after three rounds at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia. Then on Sunday, she made practically no mistakes, never carding a bogey. Her seven-under 63 was the lowest round of the championship and good enough for a five-shot win. And, with one of the more impressive finishes in major championship history, Kim had finally shaken the moniker of best player on the LPGA Tour without a major win.

Kim has been playing in the United States since 2015 and won 10 times before securing her first major, most notably the 2019 CME Group Tour Championship. She helped solidified her stature as one of the game’s best when she shot 31 under at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, taking over Annika Sorenstam’s record for lowest 72-hole score recorded on the LPGA Tour.

But despite her tour wins and scoring mark, Kim kept struggling to finish off majors. In 28 major starts, she had six top-five finishes and eight top 10s. Her best recent showing was a T-2 at the 2018 Evian Championship. And in 2105, Kim was second at the KPMG Women’s PGA, having been bested by Inbee Park. Kim was not about to lose to Park again this time, even as Park’s closed with a bogey-free 65 of her own to finish runner-up.

“In the back of my head I knew that Inbee was going to play well,” Kim said. “But it reminded me of 2015 when I played with Inbee for a major championship. I actually didn’t recall that until someone told me about that. But I really tried to stay composed again, focusing on my game, and got it done.”

Park, a 10-time major winner and Hall of Famer, was impressed with opponent’s play, saying it was only a matter of time until Kim won a major.

“I saw the leader board and it just kept going lower and lower and lower,” Park said. “I’d make birdies, she makes birdies, I’d make birdies, she makes birdies, and I was like, come on. It was just fun to have that kind of race.”

Andy Lyons/PGA of America

Kim said she did her best to not let this week feel like a major, to help take some of the pressure off. But the nerves did creep in: She admitted she miscalculated setting her alarm time for Sunday morning and woke up to realize she was already half an hour behind schedule. No matter what you try to tell yourself, a major week is still a major week.

“I feel the pressure every week, but especially in a major championship,” Kim said. “I’ve felt pressure every time I’ve played in one, and I feel it in the players’ eyes when I come to a major championship, everybody is really eager to win this one.”

The eagerness is understandable, but Kim said she was able to finally breakthrough by keeping that eagerness in check.

“Looking back, recalling those [past majors], I think I was really playing aggressively trying to win,” Kim said, “but this week I tried to stay composed, focus on my game, not worrying about other factors that might affect my game, and I think that helped overall.”

Now that Kim has broken through to win this first major, it feels like a safe bet that it won’t take five years for her to win her next one.

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On a hot, humid Florida afternoon, most of the attention seemed to be directed elsewhere. Nelly Korda, the highest-ranked American at No. 3, was just a shot behind Kim at the start of the final round, and had attracted more attention from stretches of brilliant golf: four-under for her final three holes on Thursday, the 31 she shot on the front nine on Friday, the 31 she shot on the back nine on Saturday.

Even throughout the final round, as Korda fought through a difficult ball-striking day, Danielle Kang’s seven-under 65 to finish at 16 under generated more buzz around the golf course.

But to overlook Kim yet again was a mistake.

“She’s just got it, the it factor it’s in her,” Kim’s caddie Paul Fusco says. “You’ve seen what she’s done, the records, the holing out. She does special things.”

Kim was the LPGA Rookie of the Year in 2015. She broke Annika Sorenstam’s tour scoring record, having shot 31 under at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic. The win Sunday at the CME marks her 10th on the LPGA Tour, and her third of the 2019 season.

The hole-out to which Fusco referred came in her second tour victory, from the fairway to win in a playoff at the Lotte Championship in 2015. Kim has been in four playoffs, and has won every one.

Yet Kim is not bothered by the obscurity under which she has played. “Being also under the radar and having the attention kind of shifted to other players, not myself, it really motivates me to work harder,” Kim said.

Michael Reaves

Kim showed the it factor on the winning 25-footer on 18, a downhill left-to-right breaker that she hit with perfect speed, the ball droppingon the high side.

It was a putt for birdie, the win and $1.5 million, the largest winner’s check in the history of women’s golf.

It was also a putt Kim didn’t realize she had to make to win.

Having not seen the leaderboard, she wasn’t aware that Charley Hull had just birdied the 18th hole ahead of her, pulling into a tie with Kim at 17-under. Kim said she was under the impression that she was in a battle only with Korda. Korda had made her birdie putt on 18 to finish at 16-under, so Kim was under the impression she needed two putts for par and the win.

“To be honest with you, I was only aware of Nelly’s position when I was putting,” Kim said, through a translator. “I had no idea Charley’s score. So I just thought of two-putting to secure my win.”

Fusco knew, but didn’t say anything.

“I knew she had to make it but I was never going to tell her,” Fusco said. “That would’ve created too much pressure.”

Michael Reaves

Remaining calm by diminishing pressure is something Kim has been working on, though she never looks overly stressed on the golf course.

“She hides it,” Fusco said. “I always tell her to relax when I can tell things are going not the way she wants it. We’ve been talking about it and working on it for years. Just trying to get to the point where you’re always relaxed. When you’re there, no one is going to beat you.”

Her tendency to overthink at times was evident throughout the week at Tiburon Golf Club. She’d spend more time than usual on some putts, walking around the line again, sometimes talking to Fusco several times before setting up and putting.

But when Kim got to the 18th green, there was no conversation. Kim did not consult Fusco. She had it.

The putt—and the victory—are another reminder (on a long list of reminders) that Sei Young Kim should not be overlooked.

“She’s gonna have those blow away years, you watch,” Fusco said, beaming on the 18th green just after his player hoisted the trophy and $1.5 million check. “I think she’s just getting started.”

The post Sei Young Kim, overlooked no more, wins the CME Group Tour Championship and $1.5 million appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
NAPLES, Fla. — After making double bogey on the third hole of the third round of the CME Group Tour Championship, Nelly Korda was in a bad place on the leaderboard. The 21-year-old American started the day at nine-under at Tiburon Golf Club, tied for third, three shots behind leader Sei Young Kim. But the double put her at seven-under, and while Korda struggled at No. 3, Kim had birdied the second hole. Quickly, Korda found herself six back.

But it didn’t stay that way for long. Korda made birdie at the fourth, a moment that if she winds up winning the LPGA season finale on Sunday will be seen as an obvious turning point.

“All I was thinking was there is this line in a rap song, Last night I took an L but tonight I bounced back,” Korda said, laughing. (Taking an L meaning taking a loss.) “That was what I was thinking on the next hole.”

For those of you not well versed in the beats of Big Sean, the lyric is from his song “Bounce Back.” Korda says she always has songs playing in her head while she’s on-course. Her warm-up playlist covers everything from country to rap.

“I have so many songs stuck in my head,” Korda said. “Someone could say something in the crowd, and I’ll pick up a song from that and it’s in my head all day.”

Bounce Back turned out to be the right song to latch onto. Korda made two more birdies on the front to turn in 35. The back nine started with three straight birdies and included two more for a bogey-free 31—six shots better than the 37 she shot on her second-round back nine.

As Korda signed for a 66, Kim came in with a 68. That six-shot gap between the two was now down to one as they head into Sunday’s final round. With a Saturday 70, Caroline Masson is four shots back of Kim at 12 under. Charley Hull is a shot behind her, and a cluster of four players, including Nelly’s older sister, Jessica, are at 10 under.

Nelly and Kim are paired in the final twosome. Both have won twice on the LPGA Tour in 2019. For her part, Kim is excited for the pairing; she calls Korda her favourite player. Kim likes playing with Korda because she plays fast.

The pace of the final group might slow down as the reality of what’s at stake comes into clearer view—specifically a $1.5 million first prize. It’s the biggest winner’s payout in the history of women’s golf. But both players are trying to forget about the money.

Kim says that the key to maintaining her lead through Sunday afternoon is to “just relax and enjoying for tomorrow.”

“I’m not going to think about it too much,” Korda said of the money. “Just going to go out, have fun, play golf, and see where it goes.”

With the right song in her head, she could find herself going straight to the bank.

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