Tom Kim and Dallas contingent seek spark from 'home game' at CJ Cup Byron Nelson
Tom Kim is hoping his home game can ignite a sluggish start to his season.
The 22-year-old South Korean lives just 35 minutes from TPC Craig Ranch in Dallas and expects one of the larger followings at a PGA Tour stop that includes local flavor from Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
As a group, the Dallas residents are entering their home game at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson without a victory this season among them. Scheffler has been the best of the bunch, finishing second in Houston and fourth at the Masters and hasn't been outside the top 25 this year. Despite being winless this season, he's still fourth in the FedEx Cup in his big to win the Tour's Player of the Year award for a fourth straight season.
Spieth, who made his PGA Tour debut in this event as a 16-year-old in 2010 when it was played at TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas, returned from wrist surgery in early February. He currently sits 50th in the FedEx Cup standings but is winless in more than three years and has work to do if he's going to make the Ryder Cup team this fall.
Zalatoris still seems to be figuring out his swing after back surgery about 18 months ago but it is his putter that has been holding him back. He's wallowing in 88th place in the FedEx Cup standings and has failed to record a top-10 finish.
But Kim hasn't been much better, with just one top 10, a T-7 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, that has him sitting in 76th position in the season-long standings. It's time for these Texans to get to work.
Kim has won three times on the PGA Tour at the tender age of 22 but failed to lift a trophy for the first time last year. All that early success has boosted expectations for Kim, but no one expects more out of him than Kim himself.
'There's been moments of uncertainty of where did the game go?' Kim said. 'The belief is very high with my game, knowing that if I just get anywhere near on a run, I feel I can hit it as close as anybody. I felt I proved that in very high-pressure conditions. It just hasn't been where it needs to be. My golf swing is just not feeling so comfortable as it did the last fall.'
That's when Kim played solidly during the Presidents Cup in Montreal for the International Team and had a string of runner-up results, losing a playoff to Ben An at the Genesis Championship in Korea, second at the Hero World Challenge in December and T-2 the following week at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
Kim blamed his poor play on his weight loss. He shed some pounds thanks to a better fitness routine and commitment to a cleaner diet.
'My body is not used to it,' he said. 'I know it's going to take time. But once I know I find it with where I am now, it's going to be really good.'
This week's home game offers the perfect opportunity to show the right stuff.
'I have good memories here. I haven't really played the best that I could have the last few years,' he said. 'But this was my first appearance before my really big run in '22, and I think every time I come back I kind of just reflect to those moments of before I was a PGA Tour member. The emotion, the excitement I felt coming in here and playing here. And it's just trying to relive those memories and just try to bring that fire back like I did in '22.'
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