Si Woo Kim becomes youngest PLAYERS winner

Maybe Si Woo Kim happens to be the youngest player on the PGA Tour, but the 21-year-old played some grown man golf as he became the youngest player to win THE PLAYERS Championship this past weekend. Kim finished the weekend off with a coolly-played, bogey-free fourth round three-under to win the unofficial fifth major and the season’s second-largest purse, only behind The Master’s. He was 10-under for the entire tournament and beat veterans Ian Poulter and Louis Oosthuizen by three strokes.

The weekend saw many of the game’s stars stumble, particularly on the tricky 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. But Kim collectively hit par on the island green over the weekend. The Sunday, his chip drive fell on dry land before he finished with a long put and a tap-in that kept him three strokes up on his competition.

Kim did the hard part, but with the championship on the line, he hit another par on the 18th to secure just the second PGA Tour win of his you1ng pro career. He beat Adam Scott but nearly two full years as the youngest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship and is also the fourth youngest to win multiple PGA Tour titles over the past 25 years, joining a star-studded group with Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, and Jordan Spieth. He also won last year’s Wyndham Championship.

The win also vaults Kim from 75th in the world golf rankings up to 28th. He becomes the ninth player aged 25 or younger to be in the current top 40. Hideki Matsuyama, Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Thomas Pieters, Emiliano Grillo, Daniel Berger, and Matthew Fitzpatrick were all in the top 40 heading into THE PLAYERS Championship and all still remain in coming out of it.

Kim still may have a ways to go before ascending into the truly upper echelon of the sport and with the top young stars, like Matsuyama and Spieth, but his fearless nature, which was also referred to by his caddy Mark Carens after the victory, certainly makes him a big threat to the field moving forward.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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