Big
Hitter
OCTOBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 69
C. COX/GETTY IMAGES; INSET: STUART FRANKLIN/GETTY IMAGES
Si Woo Kim and his Korean colleagues
lead the way as Asia’s presence in pro golf
flourishes like never before.
BY MONTE BURKE
S
i Woo Kim sits in the players’ lounge at the TPC Boston
golf course after finishing a practice round for the Dell
Technologies Championship in early September, the
second leg of the PGA Tour’s season-ending FedEx Cup
playoffs. His sturdy 5 -foot-11, 1 8 0-pound frame is in a
slouch, making him appear a bit sleepy. The 22 -year-old South
Korean answers a few questions through Rambert Sim, his agent
and—today, anyway—his translator. And then Kim, who is the
3 9th-ranked golfer in the world, is asked about the signature win
of his young career, which came at the 2 017 Players Champion-
ship, the PGA Tour’s hall-
mark event. But before Sim
can even begin translating,
Patton Kizzire, a fun-loving
journeyman Tour player
from Alabama, walks by and
butts in. “I’ll tell you what it
means,” he drawls. “It means
I need to borrow some
money from him.”
Kim breaks into a huge
smile that lights up his che-
rubic face. He didn’t need a
translation for that.
Three and a half months
earlier, in May, at the beginning of the final round of the Players
Championship, the leaderboard was stocked with familiar names.
The long-hitting American, J.B. Holmes, was tied for the top spot.
The South African winner of the 2 010 Open, Louis Oosthuizen,
was one stroke behind. Australia’s Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters
winner, and Spain’s Sergio Garcia, fresh off his 2 017 Masters vic-
tory, lurked within striking distance. No one paid much attention
Driven: Kim joins Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Jordan Spieth as the
only modern-era PGA Tour players to win two tourneys before age 22.
FORBES ASIA
ASIAN INVASION
Hideki Matsuyama: No. 3 in the
world and the golfer to beat in Asia.
