Tom Kim isn’t sure how he will celebrate another victory in Las Vegas but he’d like to become the first player on the PGA Tour to win the same tournament three straight times since 2011. The first time Kim won the Shriners Children’s Open, he was too young to order an adult drink. Last year, when he repeated as champion, Kim had reached the legal age but instead kicked back with a piece of white chocolate that he had saved from the night before for such a special occasion.
“Definitely tasted very, very sweet,” he said of the celebratory treat during his pre-tournament press conference at TPC Summerlin on Tuesday. “I don’t have a piece of chocolate with me this week, but we’ll find something else.”
With his win at the 2023 Shriners Children’s Open, Kim, 22, became the youngest three-time winner on Tour since Tiger Woods. Maverick McNealy, 28, is making his 128th career Tour start this week and wouldn’t mind celebrating his first victory not far from where he calls home. He can be found bright and early at TPC Summerlin nearly every day when he isn’t traveling to compete on the Tour.
“Every time you tee it up here, you’re kind of thinking about the tournament and looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s definitely one of my favorite weeks of the year.”
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Given Kim’s success and McNealy’s knowledge of his home track, they likely would be playing this week no matter the circumstances, but they find themselves playing a few more events in the FedEx Fall after narrowly missing out on the top 50 in the FedEx Cup playoffs, which earned those on the right side of the cutoff starts in all eight of next season’s signature events.
In the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis in August, Kim finished bogey, double bogey, double bogey at TPC Southwind and after starting the week at No. 43 in the FedEx Cup, he tumbled to No. 51.
“The difference between being 50 and 51st is a big difference,” Kim explained. “Good golf you’re able to take three, four months off and not worry about anything. Bad golf you got to pick your butt up once the playoff starts and try to play well in the fall.”
Tom Kim and caddie Joe Skovron on the 13th fairway during the final round of the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
Kim, who played nine weeks in a row in a bid to make Korea’s Olympic team and improve his standing in the FedEx Cup, has played only once – at the Presidents Cup – since his crash-and-burn in Memphis. He’s had a chance to decompress and even go home to Korea for four days after the playoffs.
“I’m seeing life again outside of golf which is really cool,” he said.
He’s preparing for a stretch that includes playing in Korea for the first time since he joined the Tour nearly three years ago.
“That’s going to be really cool,” Kim said.
McNealy is stoked for his home game. He said every room is full in his home with members of his team. He fell a stroke short of making the BMW Championship but left it all out there in the final round, holing a bunker shot at 16 for birdie and posting 64 to finish T-12.
“There’s something about having your back against the wall that lets you do things that you can’t normally do under normal circumstances. It narrows your focus. It heightens your awareness. It does some pretty fun stuff, and it’s a feeling that you really chase as a professional athlete,” McNealy said. “Thought I needed 7-under and ended up shooting 6, and because of that I’ll probably play a couple more tournaments this fall than I would’ve otherwise.
“That being said, my game is good and I love a bunch of the fall tournaments and want to play them. I don’t know what else I would be doing with my time. I love competing.”
There’s still plenty for Kim and McNealy to play for this fall. Nos. 51-60 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, which concludes at The RSM Classic in November, will earn signature event starts in 2025 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational via the Aon Next 10.
“If you get high on the FedEx Cup list early it gives you a huge leg up on the rest of the year. That kind of starts here with me playing the next five out of six weeks trying to solidify a spot in the top 60,” said McNealy, who skipped taking an off-season break. “I think I’ve maybe taken two days off since Memphis. Yeah, just worked really, really hard and my game feels really good.”
