The Open Championship: Korean Tom Kim makes history, as Harman claims golf season’s closing major
- Tom Kim overcomes ankle issue to equal Sunday low at squally Royal Liverpool
- American Brian Harman closes with one-under-par 70 to win tournament by 6 shots
Tom Kim overcame the twin perils of an ankle injury and foul English seaside conditions to shoot a magnificent final-round 67 and become the youngest Open Championship runner-up in 47 years.
Korean Kim, 21, was among a group of four players who finished six strokes adrift of runaway winner Brian Harman, who claimed his first major prize on Sunday and landed a first title of any description in more than six years.
Harman established a five-shot lead over the field following a tremendous second-round 65 on Friday and never wobbled in the face of multiple surges from a handful of major winners in the pack.
The American closed with a fine one-under-par 70 to finish on 13 under and join an exclusive seven-man club who have won majors by six strokes or more in the past quarter-century.
While Harman’s progress from gun to tape qualified as relatively serene, Kim endured a wretched start to his week at Royal Liverpool.
Kim, who achieved successive top-10 major finishes following his tied-eighth at last month’s US Open, slipped into “half-a-yard of mud” outside his English rental property after an opening-round 74.
A grade-one ankle tear raised the prospect of Kim withdrawing from the tournament. But he gritted his teeth to record successive rounds of 68, reaching Sunday in relatively rude health.
Kim’s concluding 67 was equalled only by 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and Adrian Meronk of Poland.
“My ankle actually lasted better today,” Kim. “I took off my cast and it got a lot better. Coming down the stretch of a major when you’re playing well, the adrenaline kind of hits.
“It was nice to almost forget about it a little bit, because when you’re in the moment, you don’t really think about it.
“I was just trying to have a good finish because I’m trying to stack up those kind of good weeks and give myself confidence again. I wasn’t trying to look at the leaderboard too much, but I think I took a glimpse after nine and I thought I was inside the top 10. But I forgot about it really quickly and kind of tried to keep my foot on the gas.”
Kim shared second place with the Australian former US PGA winner Jason Day, Sepp Straka of Austria and current Masters champion Jon Rahm.
The powerful six-footer, who celebrated his 21st birthday only last month, is the youngest Open runner-up since Rahm’s fellow Spaniard, the great Seve Ballesteros, finished behind Johnny Miller as a 19-year-old at Royal Birkdale in 1976.
Kim recovered from bogeying his opening two holes on Sunday to sandwich an eagle on five with a pair of birdies before the turn. The youngest player since Rory McIlroy in 2010 to manage consecutive major top-10 finishes, Kim leapt to 14th in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points list in advance of high-stakes season-ending play-offs in August.
Harman, meanwhile, shed his ‘always-the-bridesmaid’ tag after securing the most top-10 finishes (29) without winning on the PGA Tour since the outset of the 2017-18 season.
Climbing to the top of The Open leaderboard after three holes of his second round, Harman could not be shifted over the following 51 holes.
“I’ve always had a self-belief I could do something like this,” Harman said. “It’s just when it takes so much time, it’s hard not to let your mind falter, like maybe I’m not winning again.
“I’m 36 years old. All these young guys are coming out, hit it a mile and they’re all ready to win. Like, when is it going to be my turn again?
“To come out and put a performance like that together … I don’t know why this week, but I’m very thankful it was this week.”
