Thomas sees room for improvement after another strong year

All aboard the Tom Kim train. The 20-year-old South Korean (birth name Joohyung Kim) produced a dynamic double in Sunday’s final round at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Not only did Kim match a Detroit GC tournament course record with a 9-under 63, but he acquired enough non-member FedExCup points to clinch his PGA TOUR card for 2022-23. Kim now holds 417 non-member FedExCup points, which would place him No. 97 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List if he were a member. By earning equivalent points to No. 125 after next week’s Wyndham Championship, he will earn his card for next season. There is not a scenario where 29 players could pass him next week. “It means everything,” said Kim of earning a PGA TOUR card for next season. “Every day I’ve played golf, I thought about playing on the PGA TOUR, it was nothing else. It could get a little emotional tonight, but it’s definitely been a dream. It’s been a road.” Kim stood T24 entering the final round in Detroit, knowing a strong finish could allow him to make an appreciative scheduling change and remove the Korn Ferry Tour Finals from his calendar (an alternate avenue to earn his TOUR card next month). He delivered with seven birdies and a hole-out eagle from 126 yards at the par-4 10th, moving safely inside the top 10 on the leaderboard. Kim received a sponsor exemption into the Rocket Mortgage Classic, his eighth TOUR start of the season. He had already earned Special Temporary Membership by surpassing the No. 150 position on last season’s FedExCup via non-member points, with three top-25s highlighted by a solo third at the Genesis Scottish Open earlier this month. As a non-member, Kim will not be exempt into the FedExCup Playoffs unless he wins next week’s Regular Season-ending Wyndham Championship. His showing in Detroit, though, ensures that his non-member FedExCup points will exceed No. 125 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List upon the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship. Kim turned pro in 2018 and has already won twice on the Asian Tour and twice on the Korean Tour. He arrived in Detroit at No. 39 on the Official World Golf Ranking. The kid who adopted the American name Thomas due to his fascination with the television series “Thomas the Tank Engine” is now set to assume well-deserved status as a PGA TOUR member.

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The regular season portion of the 2016-17 PGA TOUR season concludes at this week’s Wyndham Championship. It’s the last chance for players to make the top 125 in points before the FedExCup Playoffs begin next week. No surprise, then, that the bulk of the 156-man Wyndham field consists of players looking to either secure their positions, or move inside the top 125. Consider this: Of the players ranked between 90 and 178 in FedExCup points, all but 13 will be teeing it up at Sedgefield this week. PGA TOUR LIVE’s coverage of the first two rounds begins at 7:30 a.m. ET. PGA TOUR Radio will have play-by-play starting at Noon ET. Golf Channel’s coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET. Related: Tee times | Course | Past Results | Field Here are the featured groups for the first two rounds (current FedExCup rank in parentheses): Grayson Murray (66), Chris Stroud (69), Geoff Ogilvy (125) – Murray and Stroud each posted their first TOUR wins recently – Murray at the Barbasol Championship, Stroud at the Barracuda Championship. Ogilvy enters this week as the FedExCup bubble boy; if he slips one spot in the standings, he will not advance to the Playoffs. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 12:50 p.m. ET (1st tee); Rd. 2 – 7:50 a.m. ET (10th tee) Kevin Kisner (9), Bill Haas (34), Henrik Stenson (75) – Haas and Stenson are past FedExCup champions, but it’s Kisner who’s in the best form right now. Not only is he the highest-ranked FedExCup player in the field, he also comes off a terrific showing at the PGA Championship. He led after 54 holes before finishing T7. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 1 p.m. ET (1st tee); Rd. 2 – 8 a.m. ET (10th tee) Webb Simpson (37), Ryan Moore (67), Davis Love III (209) – Fairly easy to figure out what these three have in common – they’re each a past winner at the Wyndham Championship. Moore won in 2009, Simpson won in 2011 and Love won in 2015 at the age of 51. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 7:50 a.m. ET (10th tee); Rd. 2 – 12:50 p.m. ET (1st tee) Kyle Stanley (17), Jason Dufner (22), Billy Horschel (23) – All three players will enter the Playoffs ranked inside the top 30 in points, thanks mostly to their wins this season – Horschel at the AT&T Byron Nelson, Dufner at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, and Stanley at the Quicken Loans National. Now the goal is to improve, or at least maintain, those top-30 positions in order to advance to the Playoffs finale at East Lake. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 8 a.m. ET (10th tee); Rd. 2 – 1 p.m. ET (1st tee)

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