Travelers: Tom Kim leads, celebrates 22nd birthday in style

CROMWELL, Conn. — Tom Kim produced some magic on his last day as a 21-year-old.

He blistered TPC River Highlands, posting an 8-under 62 to take control of the Travelers Championship after round one. Kim leads Akshay Bhatia, Rickie Fowler, Kurt Kitayama, and Will Zalatoris by two strokes after day one.

“I hit the ball in the fairway a lot. Obviously, this course, if you start hitting the ball in the fairway, you can go at some pins and have some good opportunities,” Kim explained.

“Obviously, I putted well. When you shoot 62s or 64s, you have to putt well, and I took care of those opportunities.”

Kim made eight birdies to zero bogies, showing no blemishes in his game on day one. He ranked fourth in strokes gained putting and first in strokes gained overall.

The Seoul, South Korea native plotted his way around the course beautifully, easily picking and attacking his targets.

“I picked really good targets out there with my approach shots,” Kim added.

Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images

“When you have 8-irons in, sometimes you want to go for the pin a lot, but at the same time, you just go into this headspace where, okay, this is where I need to pick my target, I don’t feel like I need to push or anything and just sticking to that game plan.”

He played beautifully from tee to green, but the most remarkable aspect of Kim’s play Thursday is that this week marks his eighth straight event on the PGA Tour.

“I felt like my game was there, but it wasn’t really showing in tournaments. I feel like I’m playing well, but for some reason, I can’t show it off in golf tournaments,” Kim said.

“I think that’s why I’m playing a lot more than I normally ever would because if you keep getting reps in tournaments, you keep sharpening, sharpening, sharpening, and that’s what’s happening. So I’m glad to see it actually come out though.”

Kim’s eight-week stretch began at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, where he tied for 52nd despite shooting rounds in the 60s all four days.

In the six events since, his best finish came north of the border, where he tied for fourth at the RBC Canadian Open. He did not miss any cuts, but his average order of finish over the last seven weeks is 31.7—greatly exaggerated by that solid performance in Canada.

“It wasn’t like I was playing terribly; it was just a few things that didn’t go my way, and I couldn’t adapt to it and score well,” Kim added.

“It’s not like it was a bad week, but a bad round cost me that week. But at least it’s a 26th or 25th finish; it’s not like I’m finishing 50th or missing the cut. It shows me that my bad weeks are close, which gives me the confidence to go out and know that I actually am playing well and just trying to keep riding this momentum.”

Kim will celebrate his 22nd birthday riding a big wave of momentum, hoping to fend off the top players in the world, including Scottie Scheffler. Funny enough, Kim and Scheffler share the same birthday, and these two players have developed a friendly rapport and celebrate together each year.

So earlier this week, Kim and Scheffler went to Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, which has world-famous pies. Kim added that he would not indulge like that during a tournament, but it is his birthday, so he had to celebrate somehow.

But he also gets to celebrate his marvelous 62 as an early birthday present, which likely tastes better than Sally’s, something hard to do.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.