Tom Kim last month at the Genesis Invitational.
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The Tom Kim examination on episode four of the second season of the Netflix series “Full Swing,” entitled “Prove It,” eloquently deep-dives on a journey we’ve all been on. Or perhaps continue to be. On transitioning from being young and free and fun — to growing older and becoming serious and being taken earnestly. And we’ll review all that in a sec.
Because we need to talk about his beverage cooler.
You see that thing?
About six minutes in, Kim is riding on it. It’s freaking mobile. It has a music hook-up, too. With speakers.
So there’s that. Engineering is wonderfully chugging along, pun absolutely intended.
But yeah, there was much more from the episode. Some heady things. Here, then, are 10 other fun items we learned about Kim, the now-21-year-old who was born in South Korea, turned pro at 15 and has become one of the game’s stars, thanks to three PGA Tour wins and one memorable Presidents Cup appearance.
For convenience, should you be reading this after watching, we’ll try to keep things in the order they came in the show.
2. Clubhouse and grounds navigation can be laborious
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OK, this isn’t so much a Kim observation, as it is a general golf one, but, man, it seems you need a lighthouse to guide you through renowned properties. Toward the start of the episode, Kim had trouble finding his way through the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, then, later, he hunted to find food at Augusta National. You felt for him on the latter. Our hero almost sounded touristy. It was understandable. Here he was, at the Masters, and all he’d heard about were these sandwiches — but where could a man get one? His search even took him to the Champions Locker Room, though he is not a champion. “I don’t think I’m allowed to be here,” he said.
Eventually, he found his sandwich. A pimento cheese one, if you’re wondering.
3. Magnolia Lane is also tough to spot — as are the signs in the parking lot
On his way to the Masters, Kim drove past the Masters. He missed the right turn onto Magnolia Lane. (Author’s note: It does sneak up on you. The best advice? If you have the means, go on a non-Masters day and walk to the gate. You’re even allowed to take photos, within reason.) Then, once inside the parking lot, he parked in a champions spot, which Scottie Scheffler pointed out.
If these scenes, along with the ones noted immediately above, were meant to capture a youthful, playful charm, it succeeded.
4. He gets trash-talked
Of course, in smack-talk-infested waters, that youthful, playful charm is also a beacon. An invitation. Since Kim’s on the happy-go-lucky side, the pros poke him.
Jordan Spieth did. At the Players Championship, Kim noted how he was able to eat a peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich — and Spieth jumped on it. “Probably for the kids,” he cracked. “Which I guess includes you.” Kim laughed. But Spieth wasn’t finished. “There’s my 15-month-old, Rickie’s [Fowler] 15-month-old and Tom Kim just sitting criss-cross, eating PB&J’s.”
All of it set the episode’s theme. To a point, the humor’s cool. But to a larger point, in his mind, Kim’s no joke.
“I just want to be taken seriously,” he said.
5. The reaction to the mud
An episode at the PGA Championship might not have helped. While this site has previously reported on what happened, in short, Kim slipped into mud on the 6th hole at Oak Hill while searching for a ball, sunk, then tried to clean himself up in a stream. ESPN’s broadcast caught some of it, and fans and players watched. The scene went viral.
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On the episode, here were some reactions to it:
Said Rory McIlroy: “He’s not a typical golfer. I think when people think about the best players in the world, I feel like they want him to fit into a certain type of mold. But it’s not something that I would do.”
Said Spieth: “I see the video after we were done of him actually going in there. I don’t know what his actual plan was. But clearly it didn’t work out.”
The show framed it as a potential turning point for Kim — and what eventually followed in the Open Championship showed that it was. The magic of Hollywood, right? Not quite, but things did work out.
6. Chris Como’s wisdom
As noted here previously, Kim started to work with teacher Chris Como last year, and one nugget from Como was particularly interesting. The two were reviewing that Kim is a perfectionist — and Como wondered whether that could be baked into his “process.” They then had this exchange:
Said Kim: “I don’t know, I feel like sometimes I don’t really care about the process. I just want … ”
Said Como: “The outcome?”
Said Kim: “Yeah.”
Said Como, who once coached Tiger Woods: “You know, I think getting away from such a tied-to-the-outcome type of mindset to more of that process, that is part of the maturity. You talk about Tiger, I mean, he was so into the process.”
Said Kim: “Yeah. That’s why he’s the best, right?”
7. The Open Championship injury
We’ve also reported on Kim’s right ankle injury at last year’s Open Championship — where Kim suffered a severe ankle injury while stepping out of his rental house ahead of the second round, but continued on en route to tying for second — but the episode offered a wonderful, behind-the-scenes look. They showed the diagnosis inside a medical truck. They showed him getting taped up. They showed him limping to the first tee. They talked about the consequences of playing through. Would he damage it more? Would it linger?
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They showed his reaction walking off his 72nd hole with his best finish in a major. Some handshakes. Smiles.
“At the highest level of the game, where only the fittest survive,” teacher Sean Foley said, “Tom Kim proved playing with that injury, he’s really as good as any player out there. I think that the greats are going to be watching him because I just think that game recognizes game.”
From there, Kim’s second-straight win at the Shriners Children’s Open was shown, and the episode ended. But along the way, there were a few other Kim items, including:
8. He’s deep into his ‘monkey brain’
Full disclosure: The author had not heard of this before. But here was Kim’s explanation of it, told one night while driving down Washington Road in Augusta.
“It’s always telling you to do the things that you shouldn’t, especially with cravings. I’m a big foodie. The monkey is always telling you to have the McFlurry or this or that. I hate my monkey brain because it definitely tells me, you can almost taste the ice cream or the chocolate or whatever.”
9. He now knows the ‘a**hole’ line
The author has heard this one, though, and maybe this says more about him. Anyway, in one scene, Kim was telling his agent, Ben Harrison, that he was behind schedule, which led to this exchange, started by Harrison:
“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”
Said Kim: “You’re an a**hole.”
Said Harrison: “The thing about a**holes is everybody needs one.”
Said Kim: “That was — that was not clean.”
10. He’s single
For this, we’ll let just the words do the talking.
Said Kim to Netflix: “You guys need to stop having the camera below me because my face just looks like this. [Gestures outward with his hands.]”
Said a woman in the background: “No, it does not.”
Said Kim: “You guys need to be above me.”
Said the woman: “You have a nice face.”
Said Kim: “Not a lot of ladies have told me so far.”
Said the woman: “What?!”
Said Kim: “Yup.”
Said the woman: “Nah, I bet you have a big ladies’ following.”
Said Kim: “You sure? Doesn’t seem like it.”
Said Kim: “When people are seeing this, just hit me up. I’m available.”
11. He has four words of advice on hitting it hard
Golf is a simple game (get the ball in the hole!) played complicatedly (check your head, chest, arms, wrists, waist, legs, knees and feet!), so it’s appreciated when someone communicates in non-Latin. Kim did, when asked by analyst and one-time pro Smylie Kaufman what he does when he wants to hit it “hard.”
Kim’s response?
“Just swing it hard.”
