Tournament favorite Tom Kim learns from his 'failures' as he preps for the Rocket Mortgage Classic - "You lose 99% of the year"
Tom Kim leads the field of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which will be played from this Thursday, June 27, at the Detroit Golf Club in Michigan. Kim is coming off a runner-up finish at the Travelers Championship and said he learns more from failures.
Kim is ranked 16th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), which places him as the top ranked golfer in the field of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He held a pre-event press conference on Wednesday, and the subject of his defeat a week ago occupied part of his remarks.
Answering a reporter's questions about the lessons left from a result like the Travelers Championship, Tom Kim had this to say (via PGA Tour):
"I felt like I've learned a lot more from my failures, or not failures but like tough weeks like runner-up finishes because I feel like there's so much more to gain. Where golf is...you lose 99% of the year, that's just kind of the way it goes, only one guy wins the trophy and everyone else goes home." [0.01 - 0.22]
Tom Kim had an excellent performance at the Travelers Championship, the eighth Signature Event of the PGA Tour season. At TPC River Highlands, he led the leaderboard for most of the tournament and finished the mandatory 72 holes tied with Scottie Scheffler.
Tom Kim lost to Scheffler on the first playoff hole in what was the sixth win of the season for the World No. 1. However, the Korean has just turned 22 years old and is considered one of the top young stars in world golf. He currently has three victories on the PGA Tour.
How is the 2024 season going for Tom Kim?
Tom Kim has had a busy 2024 season, having played 19 tournaments to date. He has missed only two cuts, but also withdrew from The Players Championship.
His results include six Top 25s but only two Top 10s. One of them was second place at the Travelers Championship a week ago, which is also his best result of the year. Prior to that, he finished T4 at the RBC Canadian Open.
Kim has played in all three Majors this season and has made the cut in all of them. In the Masters, he finished T30 while he placed T26 in the PGA Championship and T26 in the US Open.
Kim has a six-season career in professional golf, two of them on the PGA Tour. The Korean came to the American circuit in 2022 as a Special Temporary Member, but quickly earned his card by winning the Wyndham Championship that same year.
During the 2022-2023 season, Kim had two more victories. Given the atypical characteristics of this season (it was extended due to the restructuring of the tour schedule), the Korean won two editions of the same tournament (Shriners Children's Open 2022 and 2023).