A member of the vaunted Manila Southwoods young death squad in six years ago that dominated Philippine amateur golf including the 69th Fil-Am Golf Invitational is now one of the world best golfers after winning the 83rd Wyndham Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina Sunday.
The now 20 year old Kim Hyungjoo carded a 61 for a four day total of 260 and 20 under to win by five strokes that earned him US$1.3 million in the US$7.3 million event at the Sedgefield Country Club.
With the win, Kim booked himself a ticket to the Fed-Ex Cup play-offs and earned himself a Professional Folf Association card.
Kim helped win for Southwoods the Am Championship title in the Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay golf clubs hosted Fil-Am golf in 2016.
He carded a closing round of 29 or 7 over to power Southwoods to a closing round of 112 and 533 four day aggregate.
Kim, whose father Kim Chang-ik was a pro player before becoming a teaching pro and so his stay in Australia, Philippines and Thailand, won the Philippine Amateur Open Championship and the W Express PVF Cup Championship in 2018.
He turned pro and joined the Philippine Golf Tour in May 2018, before enlisting in the Asian Developmental Tour in 2019.
Kim placed fourth in two ADT events both in Malaysia, and two bridesmaid finishes, both in Thailand, before winning his first, the PGM ADT Championship in Malaysia.
He would later capture the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in Indonesia then the Raya Pakistan Open that earned him a slot in the Asian Tour in late 2019.
By winning the Panasonic Open in India in November 2019, Kim became the second youngest to win a legt in the Asian Tour at 17 years and 149 days old.
In 2020, he won his first AT title, the SMBC in Singapore which was part of the Open Qualifying Series and thus earning him a slot in the Open Championship, one of golf’s four major tournament.
Kim won the Singapore International in 2022 and was first runner up in the SMBC Singapore also that year that made him the AT’s top money winner.
He thus qualified for the Korean PGA where he won in the Gunsan Country Club Open after a 16 under total for a two stroke win and the SK Telecom Open by carding a 14 under total for a three stroke win.
Kim also earned a special card in the PGA and finished tied for 47th in the 2022 Open Championship.
Before winning at Greensboro, Kim placed seventh in the Rocket Montage Classic.
The win propelled Kim to 21st in the PGA ranking. Pigeon Lobien
