What separates the South Korean from many golfers is that he’s able to swing aggressively through impact, letting the clubface close noticeably without fear of hooking the ball.
While the Ryder Cup is one of the biggest events in golf, Im and Kim are playing for something far bigger this week at the Asian Games: military exemptions.
Going by historical precedent and some quick back-of-the-napkin math, plus more than a pinch of fanciful thinking, it appears that, oh, around 44 guys can win the Memorial Tournament on Sunday.
A mixed dose of brutal honesty and tough love from his father, Du Ryu, has kept Si Woo Kim well and truly grounded as he pushes to grow his legacy on the PGA Tour as one of Asia’s greatest golfers.
Kim’s irons are Callaway’s X-Forged CB, a cavity-back players iron, which he used to rank first in the field in strokes gained/approach-the-green, picking up more than eight shots on the field.
Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim both didn’t medal at the Olympics and thus failed to exempt themselves from South Korea’s mandatory military service requirement.
They’re clearly trying to treat this as just another tournament, so as to avoid putting too much pressure on themselves and having that impact their play. But one needs only to look at their recent schedule to understand just how significant this tournament is.