The Olympic golf competitors is just a little just like the velodrome biking races through which the rivals cruise and feint till a ferocious sprint to the end line. Midway by means of the golf at these Video games, a rain-softened Le Nationwide has supplied little resistance as one of the best gamers on the planet jockey for place. Atop the leaderboard at -11 are three of the sweetest swingers within the sport: Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood. Jon Rahm is in fourth place, two photographs from the rostrum. Lurking are big-time abilities Joaquin Niemann (-6), Scottie Scheffler (-6), Matt Fitzpatrick (-6), Jason Day (-5) and Rory McIlroy (-5), amongst others.
Throughout Saturday’s third spherical, the peloton will start pedaling tougher. In relation to Olympic golf, fourth place has the identical which means as sixtieth. There aren’t any money payouts to guard, no FedEx Cup factors to hoard. Aggressive play now borders on necessary.
“Because the week goes on, it turns into extra of a psychological problem,” says Fleetwood. “Clearly you recognize that [the top] three locations are what’s going to resolve your week. Normally, you end prime 5, prime 10, you’ve had an ideal week, however [here] it don’t imply something.”
This uncommon alternative to play in your homeland and for a medal presents new layers of strain however one participant on the leaderboard faces a novel stress-fest. Tom Kim, tied for fifth at -8, is taking part in for his future. The cherubic 22-year-old is representing South Korea the place each wholesome grownup male beneath 35 should serve a obligatory 21-month stint within the navy. Successful a Masters or U.S. Open won’t exempt him from service beneath the Orwellian-sounding Army Manpower Administration. Neither will profitable a FedEx Cup or Race to Dubai. The one means Kim—the youngest three-time winner on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods—can play his means out of this profession abyss is by profitable an Olympic medal. (A gold on the Asian Video games, which has historically been a contest for amateurs, additionally counts. In 2023, execs had been allowed to play and Kim’s countryman Sungjae Im, then 25, and Si Woo Kim, 28, took benefit of this window by main Korea to victory within the staff competitors; there may be rumbling that the Asian Video games will return to ams-only within the close to future.)
The looming navy stint is Kim’s least-favorite matter and he bats away queries with curt platitudes. Following his second-round 68, I requested Kim how he cannot take into consideration the bigger which means of an Olympic medal. “Good query,” he stated with a decent smile. “I’m simply making an attempt to concentrate on my sport. I’m a competitor and all of us play for a similar factor. It’s simply golf. So I’m simply making an attempt to place my head down and play.”
He feigned ignorance on when precisely he can be conscripted or how he would possibly probably get out of it: “I don’t know. I want I might inform you.”
However, Tom, that is form of an enormous deal, proper?
“100%. Like, I’m not making an attempt to lie or something like that. I actually don’t know. I’ve been over within the U.S. for therefore lengthy, I simply carry on going.”
The specter of Sang Moon Bae haunts each proficient younger Korean golfer. Bae was a birdie machine who gained two Tour occasions by age 25. A few months after representing the Internationals within the 2015 Presidents Cup, he misplaced his attraction to the Army Manpower Administration and needed to report for obligation as a rifleman. He was woke up at daybreak each morning for calisthenics and lengthy jogs. He was compelled to review navy principle and spend numerous hours honing his marksmanship. (Sami Valimaki, presently in nineteenth place at these Video games, served six months within the Finnish military on the outset of his golf profession and describes his coaching succinctly: “Capturing heads.”) Bae has been a non-factor within the seven years since he left the military. “My swing is healthier,” he as soon as lamented to the AP’s Doug Ferguson, “however I’ve form of misplaced my really feel for learn how to play golf. Not learn how to swing—I forgot learn how to play golf.”
That’s one drawback Kim doesn’t have as he has displayed a Spiethian skill to avoid wasting photographs as a finesse participant in a sport more and more outlined by energy. “He doesn’t hit it miles however he hits it far sufficient,” says Ben An, additionally representing Korea at these Video games. “He hits it very straight. He has nice contact across the greens. Nice putter. I’d like to see what he can do within the subsequent 10, 15, 20 years.” With a contact of wistfulness, An provides, “He’s a star already, so we’ll see what occurs within the subsequent couple years.”
Korea’s most adorned golfers, Okay.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang, did their navy service of their early 20s earlier than that they had established themselves as professional golfers. Along with his Tour success, Kim has gained the Singapore Worldwide and Indian Open and boasts two victories on the Asian Tour and a pair on the Korean Tour. (He turned professional at 15.) Kim was a jovial presence on the second season of Netflix’s Full Swing and, along with his straightforward smile, he makes a superb goodwill ambassador for his homeland. However his high-profile nearly works towards him in egalitarian Korea. “It sucks you must quit golf,” says An, “however the different Koreans would say, ‘Everybody goes [into service] so why will we get exempt from it?’”
So Kim performs on, with a lot hanging within the stability. There isn’t any assure he’ll get one other probability at a medal in 4 years in Los Angeles. Even rivals from different nations who covet Olympic glory discover themselves rooting for Kim. “It’s a tricky one,” says Australia’s Min Woo Lee. “It looks as if [Korean golfers] have much more strain than what I’ve and what different individuals have as a result of it impacts their lives fairly laborious. I imply, hopefully he will get it achieved. He’s positively ok to get a gold medal. He’s a cracker of a golfer.”
However will Kim crack beneath the Olympian pressure? That’s the most intriguing query because the golf competitors roars into the weekend.
Prime Picture Caption: Tom Kim, 22, wants an Olympic medal to keep away from necessary navy service. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)
The publish Below Stress: Tom Kim Contends For Medal As Army Exemption Looms appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
