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Genesis Scottish Open final round
-17 T Kim (Kor); -15 MW Lee (Aus); -13 R MacIntyre (Sco), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), J Keefer (US), K Nakajima (Jpn); -12 M Thorbjornsen (US), R McIlroy (NI); -11 SW Kim (Kor), V Perez (Fra)
Selected others: -9 T Fleetwood (Eng), V Hovland (Nor); -4 J Rahm (Spa), -2 J Thomas (US)
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Tom Kim’s drought is over. The South Korean shed tears of joy and relief after excelling on a compelling final day at the Genesis Scottish Open to claim his first title in three years.
Kim has endured a form and confidence crisis since his previous victory – as well as plummeting down the world rankings – but served a reminder of his talents with a faultless 64 to finish 17 under at the Renaissance Club.
The 24-year-old has sought counsel from Tiger Woods during the dark times and revealed the 15-time major winner was among the first to congratulate him on this long-awaited victory.
He triumphed by two shots, with Min Woo Lee the runner-up as crowd favourite Bob MacIntyre faltered in pursuit of a second home title, ending four adrift alongside Matt Fitzpatrick.
MacIntyre, Lee and Fitzpatrick had shared the lead after the fog-disrupted third round, but it was Kim who surged from one back for a brilliant win. He was the only player in the field to avoid a bogey in the fourth round.
“I can’t really wrap my mind over it,” said an emotional Kim of his win. “It’s really special and I’m just at a loss for words.
“Obviously I’ve had a tough couple years. I got to taste a lot of that humble pie and I got to really learn about myself and I’m still trying to grow, still trying to learn.
“I’m definitely appreciating this more now than I did a couple years ago, which is really cool. I thought about my family, all the people around my corner that have suffered with me and also celebrated with me and kind of remembering all those people really brought tears to my eyes.
“Obviously on TGL being on Tiger’s team, I’ve been able to ask him questions on certain things. He’s been really helpful a lot of the time. This was my first win in three years, and the first person that texted me was Tiger Woods. Shows you the person he is and how much he cares.”
As well as a winner’s prize of £1.2m, Kim secures a place in next year’s Masters at Augusta National.
Rory McIlroy’s third-round 73 left the world number two with too big a deficit to overcome despite matching Kim’s closing six-under 64, the lowest score of the day.
Americans Michael Thorbjornsen and Johny Keefer, who tied for seventh and third respectively, will make their Open Championship debuts next week, while the other spot at Royal Birkdale goes to Frenchman Victor Perez.
Kim seemed destined for stratospheric stardom when he burst on to the PGA Tour scene. He earned his first win at 20 and within 14 months had two more.
Then the trophies dried up, as did his confidence. From a high of 11th in the world rankings he had tumbled to outside the top 150 just a month ago.
A third-place finish at the recent US Open hinted at a revival and that has now been cemented at the Scottish Open, where Kim has never finished outside the top 20 in five visits.
He profited from the two front-nine par fives to pick up three birdies by the turn and lead by one. The gap was three shots after further gains on 10 and 12.
Lee was presenting the most credible challenge and moved to within one thanks to a birdie on the drivable par-four 14th, but Kim majestically responded on 16 by arcing an approach from more than 200 yards to six feet for birdie.
“Second on 16 might be one of the best shots I’ve hit in my career so far. It’s definitely up there,” he later remarked.
MacIntyre was being roared on by a huge home support but could not repeat his 2024 triumph. The Scot began with a birdie but four bogeys in the following nine holes effectively ended his hopes.
He rallied to a 69 with an eagle on the 12th and a couple of closing birdies.
“I’ll be blatantly honest – brutal,” said MacIntyre. “Terrible start. Well, good start, birdie the first and then too many mistakes, far too many mistakes.
“I was going ballistic after 10 holes, so to actually get it back under par was a good effort. I didn’t really hole putts this week, it felt like my usual putting just wasn’t there, but overall a decent week.
“I’ve got to look at the positives. The last two weeks have been positive that I’ve played, so good signs.”
McIlroy heads to Royal Birkdale with things to “rectify” in his game before his tilt at a second Open title.
Having struggled badly in round three, which was completed on Sunday morning, he came out firing a few hours later with five birdies in his first seven holes.
That took him to 11 under, but a title challenge from so far back always looked too big an ask and three more birdies were mixed with two bogeys as he finished five strokes behind.
On the 16th hole, after sending his approach into heavy rough, McIlroy said in exasperation: “Oh my god. I’m so bad at golf.”
The 37-year-old from Northern Ireland said later: “Obviously there was some good in there today, but there was some bad as well.
“So I’m going to need to work a little bit over the next couple of days to be ready for Thursday.
“I noticed a few things in my game and my iron shots, especially this morning coming out for the back end on the third round, and I went and tried to work it on the range between rounds.
“At least I know what the problem is and it’s just about fixing it.”
