"Jeeno Scheffler' or 'Jeeno Woods" - Tom Kim tries to nickname his partner at the Grant Thornton Invitational
Tom Kim tried to give a nickname to his playing partner at the 2024 Grant Thornton Invitational at the Tiburon Golf Club. It is a team event where PGA golfers are paired with LPGA golfers. The tournament started on December 13 and would run for three days.
Amid the game, Kim told Golfweek that he had an interesting name for his playing partner Jeeno Thitikul. Kim said:
“We were deciding 'Jeeno Scheffler' or 'Jeeno Woods…and we decided obviously with 82 wins and 14 majors, she played like Tiger Woods today.”
Thitikul birdied the hole 13 after tackling a bunker and taking a shot. Following that, Kim admitted that Woods would have struggled to manage such a shot.
Kim and Thitikul are sitting at the T2 position on the Grant Thornton Invitational leaderboard, scoring 18 under. They started with 62 in the first round, which saw four birdies on the front nine and four on the back nine along with an eagle on the 14th.
The duo had 64 in the next round with four birdies on the front nine and five on the back nine. They're two shots behind the leaders, Patty Tavatanakit and Jake Knapp, who scored 20 under with 58 in the first round and 66 in the second round.
Before this, Kim’s last PGA Tour appearance was at the Hero World Challenge, where he finished at T2 with 74-65-62-68 over the four rounds and 269 (-19) in total. Another T2 finish was at the Travelers Championship, where he landed at 22 under 258.
Tom Kim explained how he could have a different nickname
Tom Kim explained in 2022 that his love for shows like Thomas & Friends and Toy Story landed up naming himself Tom, via Golf Magic. He said:
“I loved the show as a kid. I haven't watched it or anything, but apparently I really loved the train…I was like, you know what, I'm going to name myself Thomas. I haven't told anyone this, but I've actually had a few more names that I could have named myself and I'm glad I didn't, but I went with Thomas…And as years went on, people started calling me Tom, it was shorter, so I kind of went with Tom after that.”
He continued, “Do you guys really want to know? I was a big Toy Story fan, so I almost named myself Buzz Lightyear…That was a close one there's a few more. It's actually, it's not an English character, it's actually an Asian character, but Buzz Lightyear was probably the closest one to Thomas…it's crazy. I mean, I've never won a golf tournament starting with a quad.”
Tom Kim’s actual name is Kim Joo-hyung, which was his birth name given by his parents.