Hole 17 (par 3). A ball hit by Kim Si-woo (28) with a wedge from outside the green landed on the green and rolled towards the hole before falling into the cup. He again tied for the lead with a fantastic ‘chip-in’ birdie he made from about 9m away.
Kim Si-woo, who roared with clenched fists, grabbed a wood in the last 18th hole (par 5) and hit a tee shot vigorously. The ball fell into the fairway bunker, but with 222 yards left, the ball was hit with an iron and returned to the green. The eagle putt did not go in, but a birdie was lightly added to finish the game first with a one-stroke lead.
Kim Si-woo, who finished the game at the head of the clubhouse, watched Hayden Berkeley (USA) play from behind with his wife Oh Ji-hyun. As Buckley was satisfied with par on the 18th hole, Kim Si-woo’s first-stroke win was confirmed.
‘New groom’ Kim Si-woo (28) presented the championship trophy to his wife.
He won the US Professional Golf (PGA) Tour Sony Open (total prize money of 7.9 million dollars), where he participated for the first time in the new year.
On the 16th (Korean time), on the final day of the tournament held at Waialei Country Club (par 70) in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, Kim Si-woo hit 6 under par 64 in the 4th round and won with a total of 18 under par 262 strokes.
Kim Si-woo, who passed the PGA Tour Qualifying School in 2012 as the youngest (17 years, 5 months, 6 days), reported his first win on the tour at the 2016 Wyndham Championship. After that, he won the ‘Fifth Major’ Players Championship in 2017 as the youngest player ever to win the tournament, and in January 2021, he lifted his third championship trophy on American Express.
As a Korean player, Kim Si-woo, who is second in the most wins after Choi Gyeong-ju (8 wins), succeeded in winning 4 times in about 2 years. The winning prize is 1.422 million dollars (approximately 1.76 billion won).
The fact that winning this competition has a greater meaning is that they won the championship less than a month after they got married on December 18 last year.
Kim Si-woo married Oh Ji-hyeon (26), who won 7 victories on the Korean Women’s Professional Golf (KLPGA) tour, in December of last year after dating for about two years. After the wedding, they went to Hawaii and prepared for this competition along with their honeymoon.
After the third round, Kim Si-woo said, “I didn’t feel like I was in a match because I was in Hawaii early from last week, and I felt like I was on my honeymoon, so I didn’t feel the pressure of a match. After the game, I always enjoy Hawaii a little more while going on dates and eating delicious food.” He was satisfied with this tournament with his wife.
After her marriage, Oh Ji-hyeon put an end to her KLPGA tour activities and is focusing on helping her husband Si-woo Kim.
Kim Si-woo, who entered the game on the final day with a tie for 5th place by 3 strokes, made 3 birdies in a row at the beginning of the game, paving the way for a come-from-behind victory.
He started with a birdie on hole 1 (par 4) and did not miss birdie putts of 3m, 4.5m and about 2.7m on holes 2 and 3 (over par 4).
Afterwards, from holes 6 to 9, he exchanged bogeys with birdies and was unable to reduce the number of strokes, but he caught a birdie again in the second half of hole 12 (par 4) and continued to compete for the championship.
Until the 16th hole, 스포츠토토 I came down from the joint lead for a while without a birdie. Buckley, who was playing from behind, caught a birdie on the 16th hole (par 4) and took the lead by one stroke. However, Si-Woo Kim soon followed with a birdie, a fantastic chip, on the 17th hole.
In the last hole, the 18th hole, which was tied for the lead, the strategic attack worked. He hit a tee shot with a fairway wood instead of a driver and made a 2-on with an iron from a fairway bunker. Kim Si-woo, who calmly finished with a 2-putt and caught a birdie, completed the drama in front of his wife.
With Kim Si-woo’s victory, the winning streak of Korean players started again in the new year. It is the first time in about three months that a Korean player has won on the PGA Tour since Kim Joo-hyung’s Shriners Children’s Open in October last year.
Kim Si-woo, who lifted the championship trophy in the first competition in the new year, will go on the hunt for two consecutive championships at the American Express, which opens in La Quinta, California, USA on the 20th.
Ahn Byeong-hun (32) and Kim Seong-hyeon (25) tied for 12th with a total of 12 under par, 268 strokes, and Lee Gyeong-hoon (32) finished the tournament with a tie for 28th (10 under par, 270 strokes).