Tom Kim’s locker room incident? This is what really happened, said his manager
Alan Bastable
Tom Kim after the playoffs at the Genesis Championship on Sunday.
getty photos
Early Sunday morning in the US, a legend was playing out across the Pacific, in Incheon, South Korea, on the outskirts of Seoul.
Setting: The Genesis Championship at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea. The characters: two of Korea’s leading lights in golf: 22-year-old Tom Kim, who has won three times on the PGA Tour and cemented his status as a President’s Cup legend, and Ben An, 33, a former Amateur from US a winner ranked in the top 30 in the world. With the two homegrown heroes duking it out, the tournament’s happy ending was the stuff of dreams.
When Kim and An, who played together in the final round, reached the 18th green, Kim led the tournament by himself, at 17 under. But the result was in the balance when A was 16 under and both players were looking down at 8 feet for birdie. An got up first – and hit it. Then came Kim. His effort also looked good until it happened. When Kim’s ball hit the hole, it caught the edge of the cup and bounced off. Kim flipped his putter in the air and raised his hands to his mouth in disbelief.
The title would be decided in a sudden-death playoff, and it wouldn’t take long to decide.
On the first qualifying hole – a water, risk-reward par 5 18 – both players hit drives that allowed them to try to reach the green twice. Kim played his second shot first, leaving his ball just right on the green but with a difficult, reported lie. An’s attempt again missed the green, just short of fair, but he left himself a straight chip from the fairway. For the third time, Kim needed to plant her feet in the basement and hit a soft pin. He forgot the soft part, blasting his ball on the green and on the fairway. While Kim couldn’t get up and down after the free fall, An had a 6-footer to win. Draino.
What winning meant to An became clear when he found his grandmother waiting for him near the green. She fell into his arms and cried into his shoulder during what was one of the sweetest moments of the golf season.
An called the victory “a great ending to this year,” adding, “It’s a shame Tom had a mess there, but it was a good tournament for me.” I really enjoyed it.”
Kim felt her own feelings, even though their appearance was far from the public eye. After the playoff game, he returned to the locker room and began to process what must have been a big loss in front of the home fans. Frustrated, he opened the door of locker number 571 and tore it off the hinges. That information was first reported by Korea JoongAng Daily and a photo of the locker first appeared on Monday morning in the US The outlet also reported that the KPGA, which co-sanctions the Genesis Championship and the DP World Tour, is considering imposing “disciplinary” measures against Kim.
In a phone interview with GOLF.com, however, Kim’s manager, Ben Harrison, said he was unaware of any discussions about disciplinary action. “I haven’t heard anything,” Harrison said Monday morning. “I asked Tom. They never said anything to him. I don’t know where that comes from. Nothing has been said to us or Tom or Tom’s family.”
In a social media post, Kim added that “speculating” about any kind of punishment was “false reporting,” and that he “had no intention of harming any part of the locker.”
He said he apologized for his behavior and said he would pay to fix the broken door. “I spoke to Tour immediately after the incident,” Kim wrote. “After apologizing and promising to pay damages, the matter was considered close.”
The KPGA did not immediately respond to an emailed query.
Harrison was not on site but spoke to Kim and one of Harrison’s teammates who was in the locker room with Kim. He said that although his client was admittedly upset, it was not out of control.
“He was portrayed as someone who broke the locker and came out as a baby,” said Harrison. “That’s not what he did. He broke the locker because he opened it too — he didn’t take a stick and smash it. He grabbed the handle of the locker, opened it violently and the hinge broke.”
When asked if he ever saw Kim do that after the round, Harrison said, “No, it doesn’t look like that.”
Harrison added that he believes players should be given privacy in the locker room – that after the end of the round, the locker room should be the type of place for players to decompress and collect their thoughts before speaking to reporters.
“A locker room is a locker room,” Harrison said. “That doesn’t mean it’s like an anger room and you can go smash it. But you can deal with your loss, you can deal with your disappointment, and then you go out and do the media.”
Kim, ranked 25th in the world, has had a quiet season on the PGA Tour with two top-10 finishes, at the RBC Canadian Open and Travelers Championship, both in June. Most of the headlines he produced this year came from the President’s Cup in Royal Montreal, where he started where he left off in 2022, serving as the emotional spark of the international team.
Kim didn’t win all of his matches — he finished the week 1-2-1 — but no player on his side brought more moxie (and controversy) to the tournaments, including high-profile games against the favorites. by Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
“I’m very determined,” said Kim before the games. “I think strength is a big thing, especially as a young guy. I showed a lot of emotion there.”
Harrison will tell you that Kim is a golfer who has high expectations of herself and who cares deeply about delivering in the big moments. The locker room incident, the agent said, was purely innocent, if regrettable, because of that rivalry.
“I’ve worked in this business for 25 years managing guys in all fields,” said Harrison. “Whether it’s the guy who lost the card at Q school by shooting, whether it’s the guy who lost the big play-off, the guy who lost a point in the Ryder Cup, I’ve been with these guys, and they give -.”
Alan Bastable
Golf.com Editor
As editor-in-chief of GOLF.com, Bastable is responsible for the editorial direction and voice of one of the game’s most respected and heavily trafficked news and services outlets. He wears many hats – editing, writing, imagining, developing, dreaming up one day he breaks 80 – and feels privileged to work with an insanely smart and hard-working team of writers, editors and producers. Before taking over GOLF.com, he was the features editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.
