Tennessee, United States: Kim Seong-hyeon is the second former Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) participant to secure PGA Tour status for 2023 via the Korn Ferry Tour.
Six months after earning his Korn Ferry Tour card right on the number through Qualifying School in November, the 23-year-old Korean has needed only 11 tournaments to surpass the projected 900-point threshold to claim a PGA Tour card for next season.
China’s Carl Yuan Yechun was the first player to be Tour-bound last month.
Yuan was a three-time AAC contestant. He tied for ninth at the AAC in Korea in 2016 and was joint third in New Zealand in 2017. That same year, Kim made his sole AAC appearance, missing the half-way cut in the region’s premier amateur event.
Kim has impressed in his debut season in the US with three top-three finishes and another tied sixth, and needed to just make the cut at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation to reach the fail-safe threshold. He finished tied 55th on Sunday.
American Brent Grant shot a closing 69 to win the tournament by one shot from overnight leader Kevin Yu of Chinese Taipei (71). China’s Marty Dou Zecheng, who played on the PGA Tour in 2018, finished tied fifth with a final round 72 for his third top-five of the season to move up to seventh place on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season points list. The Top-25 will earn PGA Tour cards.
“I can’t really explain my feeling right now, but I think I’ll know better once I get to the Tour and play my first event,” said Kim, who remains in second place behind Yuan on the points standing.
“When I first came here to compete on the Korn Ferry Tour, I promised myself that I wanted to be consistent and it has really paid off. I started off well in the Bahamas and to get off to a hot start gave me confidence and comfort.”
Kim turned professional when he was 18 and showed his promise by winning on the Korean Tour in 2020. He won on the Japan Golf Tour last year, before deciding to venture to the US to chase his American dream.
With the pressure now off, he intends to challenge for the number one ranking on the Korn Ferry Tour which will give him access to events such as The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship event, next year.
“That’s definitely the new goal,” he said. “With the number of events left and the game that I’m playing right now, I would love to finish number one. I’m going to work hard for it.”
Kim paid tribute to Korean golf legend KJ Choi, who has been among established PGA Tour stars who have offered advice and support.
“Definitely a lonely journey … it’s a first time for me to come overseas to such a faraway place and staying in hotels week in, week out. But I was fortunate to have a lot of fellow Korean players who became close friends now and helped me,” said Kim.
“KJ has helped me in many ways … offering a place to stay at times and providing home-cooked meals and a place to practice. Whether it is practice methods or goal, mind-set setting, he has given me various advice and confidence to be successful in my journey to the PGA Tour. It’s truly a blessing to have KJ, a Korean golf legend, helping a player like me. He is a leader and a true mentor who wishes his successors to be successful.”