Power Rankings: FedExCup Playoffs

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The birdie putt on the seventh hole Sunday was from 24 1/2 feet. When it dropped, Si Woo Kim knew he stood alone atop THE PLAYERS Championship leaderboard. Then something unexpected happened in the pressure-packed environment on one of golf’s most challenging tests. Kim got comfortable. Wait, let’s amend that. Kim – the youngest active player on the PGA TOUR — got comfortable. Comfort is not supposed to be an option, not here, not at TPC Sawgrass, and especially not for 21-year-olds with limited experience in these matters. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course is meant to rattle your cages, test your mettle, fray your nerves. But on a Sunday afternoon when the heat is usually ramped up, Kim became the coolest player on the course. Calm. In control. “Once he got the lead,” said his caddie, Mark Carens, “that was the least pressure he felt.” So for his final 11 holes, while his chasers struggled to keep pace and make him sweat, the Korean-born Kim — who now lives in Dallas, Texas – offered up a steady ship, deftly relying on his scrambling ability to bail him out of any precarious situations. He never stumbled, eventually producing a bogey-free 69 and a 10-under total – good enough to make him the youngest champ in PLAYERS history. The statistic that most reflects his winning round was easy to find: Kim missed 10 greens in regulation, and successfully scrambled each time. “If you are on your game and playing well, that’s the things you do,” said Louis Oosthuizen, his playing partner Sunday. “You up-and-down when you’re in trouble. You don’t give shots away. If you can do that around this golf course, you can outscore everyone. “And he played like someone that was doing it for five or six years, like it was just another round of golf. … Never once did he look flustered.” That’s surprising, given his age. But then, he seems to be a player who’s ahead of the curve. Kim gained his TOUR card through q-school at age 17 1/2 – and then had to wait a half-year before reaching the mandatory age of 18 to play on TOUR. After spending two years on the Web.com Tour, he regained his TOUR card for the 2015-16 season and made a big early impression on his caddie. In his fourth start, he opened with consecutive bogey-free rounds (sound familiar?) en route to a tie for 17th. “It was unbelievable,” Carens said. Then at the Wyndham Championship last August, in just his 23rd start on TOUR, Kim shot a second-round 60 – he missed a 50-foot putt on his final hole for a 59. He eventually won that week in convincing fashion, by five strokes in a final round that seemed eerily familiar to how THE PLAYERS unfolded. Once Kim snagged the lead, he never let it go. He credits the week at Sedgefield with helping him deal with Sunday’s pressure. He said knowing he had a two-year exemption on TOUR freed him up to be more aggressive. (Of course, by winning THE PLAYERS, he now has another five years.) “Because of that experience,” Kim said through his interpreter, “I could be relieved and I could be very stable. I just focused on myself and I didn’t try to think about others’ scores.” There wasn’t much to think about, honestly. Oosthuizen and Ian Poulter supplied the most pressure, both making their biggest moves at the par-5 11th. Oosthuizen eagled the hole to go to 7 under; Poulter birdied it to reach 9 under. But Poulter quickly gave the stroke back on the next hole and Oosthuizen stumbled with consecutive bogeys. Both had the edge on Kim in experience, especially in dealing with intense situations – Oosthuizen’s an Open champ, Poulter’s a Ryder Cup star. But they could not match Kim on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, instead finishing tied for second. “You have to take your hat off,” Poulter said. “You have to respect some good golf, and that’s exactly what he’s done.” The performance this week speaks for itself, but in some ways, Kim’s win was most unexpected. Consider his Strokes Gained numbers. Ranked 205th on TOUR Off-the-Tee. Ranked 203rd in Approach-the-Green. Ranked 183rd in Putting. Ranked 204th Tee-to-Green. Ranked 203rd Total. His only solid category was Around-the-Green, in which he ranked 41st. The Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee called it “perhaps the greatest upset you’ll ever see” going strictly on statistics. Yet, added Chamblee, TPC Sawgrass “puts everybody on edge, pretty much turns it into a scrambling contest – and he won it.” But perhaps we shouldn’t view this win as unexpected. Perhaps Kim is the next great Korean star, following in the footsteps of another PLAYERS champ, K.J. Choi. After all, at age 21, he’s done something that not even his fellow 20-somethings Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy can claim – winning at TPC Sawgrass. Unlike Spieth and McIlroy, though, Kim must one day put his golf career on hold to fulfill the mandatory military service for his country. Considering how he played this week, how bright his future is now, it will be a shame to see him go. Hopefully it won’t happen soon. Plenty of opportunities – big opportunities – await, including the Presidents Cup later this year. The International Team appears to have a new star to lean on. “He’s still young and he was just so calm today,” said Oosthuizen, an International fixture. “He’s going to be great to have as a teammate.” Having just spent 18 holes with the young man, it’s evident Oosthuizen would rather be playing with him than against him.

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Davis Thompson is making just his third start as a pro this week, and he’s making the most of it. Thompson, who is competing on a sponsor exemption, was 7 under par on his first 12 holes to share the early lead. Here’s 5 Things you need to know about the new pro. RELATED: Leaderboard 1. TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER: If Thompson’s name sounds familiar, you may remember him from as the amateur who took the early lead in last year’s U.S. Open. He played his first 12 holes at Winged Foot in 4 under par to sit alone atop the leaderboard. He signed for an impressive 69 in the first round but missed the cut by one after shooting 78 the next day. 2. ALL-AMERICAN: Thompson was a first-team All-American in 2020 and 2021 at the University of Georgia and turned pro last month as the second-ranked player in the inaugural PGA TOUR University ranking, behind only John Pak. Thompson also was a member of this year’s victorious U.S. Walker Cup team. Thompson is the quiet type who lets his clubs do the talking. “He’s not flashy, not very talkative. I just love the work ethic,” said Georgia head coach Chris Haack. I’ve had a lot of really good players, and he works as hard or harder than anybody I’ve ever had.” 3. CASHING CHECKS: Thompson made his pro debut three weeks ago at the Palmetto Championship at Congaree. He made the cut despite being 5 over on his first eight holes of the tournament. He closed his first round with four straight birdies to shoot 71, then shot 69 to make the cut. Weekend rounds of 71 and 70 left him in a tie for 35th place, which earned him $33,336.67. He also played in last week’s Travelers Championship, missing the cut after rounds of 73 and 68. Non-members can accept up to seven sponsor exemptions per season. This is Thompson’s third. 4. PRO PEDIGREE: Thompson is used to playing along side PGA TOUR pros. Fellow Georgia alums Harris English and Brendon Todd are among the guys he plays with at home in Sea Island, Georgia. World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III is another. Thompson’s father, Todd, is the tournament director of The RSM Classic at Sea Island (and is a former captain of the Georgia golf team himself). Davis twice played in The RSM Classic as an amateur, including a T23 finish in 2019. Nepotism didn’t lead to his spot in the field, however. He earned it. 5. JONESING FOR A VICTORY: Thompson earned his spots in The RSM with his success in the Jones Cup, a prestigious amateur event held at nearby Ocean Forest. Past winners include Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Corey Conners and Kyle Stanley. The winner receives an exemption into the RSM. Thompson lost a playoff to Akshay Bhatia in 2019 but earned the invitation after Bhatia turned pro. The next year, Thompson torched the Jones Cup field. He shot a tournament-record, 13-under 203 to win by nine shots.

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We know Tiger Woods is playing with Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady later this month. After that? He’s not telling. We look at all the possibilities for him when golf resumes.

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