Tom Kim left Medinah before the final ceremony of the Presidents Cup to catch a plane to Japan. Six days later he had won the gold at the Asian Games, which allows him to avoid an 18‑ to 21‑month break in his career to complete compulsory military service in South Korea. And when he woke up to face the most important day of that trip, he found on his phone a message from none other than Tiger Woods: “Just be you. Nothing more, nothing less”.
There was good reason for Tom Kim to be in such a hurry to cross the ocean. The South Korean had been one of the main protagonists for the Internacional team in the match against the United States, scoring four points with an outstanding record of 4-1-0 and finishing his participation with a 3&2 victory over Wyndham Clark in the singles. But he couldn’t stay to see how it all ended. His flight to Japan left at practically the same time the Stars and Stripes celebrated their win and lifted the trophy.
Another team tournament awaited him. And, in a way, one considerably more important for his future. Kim had to get to the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya to represent South Korea in the golf event. He did so after crossing 14 time zones, landing in Japan at five in the morning on Tuesday. By 8.30 he was already on his way to the course and that same day completed a training session in the rain that finished at six in the evening. “It didn’t even feel like a tournament was starting the next day”, he later admitted.
Because behind that dash from Medinah to the airport and that trip to the other side of the world there was much more than a medal. Fit South Korean men are normally required to complete between 18 and 21 months of military service. For elite athletes there is an exceptional route: winning any medal at the Olympic Games or taking gold at the Asian Games. In that case they are exempt from ordinary service, although they must complete a reduced period of military training and later fulfil other obligations linked to their status as athletes.
At 24, that had huge implications for Kim. A long absence could stall a career that had only just regained momentum after a difficult spell. In July he won again on the PGA Tour by claiming the Genesis Scottish Open and at the Presidents he had just become the player who contributed the most points to the Internacional team. And he already knew what it was to come close.
At the Paris Olympics 2024 he finished eighth, four shots off the bronze medal. Any Olympic medal would have secured that exemption. This time, in Japan, he had two routes: individual gold or team gold. The latter did not materialise. China won the team competition and South Korea had to settle for silver. The result also left a particularly cruel situation for S.H. Kim, Tom‘s teammate, who also needed gold to obtain the exemption. The third team member, Mun Do-yeob, had already completed his military service.
So Tom Kim had to do it himself. And then Tiger Woods appeared. When the South Korean woke up on Saturday to play the final round at the Kasugai Country Club, leading by one after rounds of 67, 66 and 65, he looked at his phone. The first message he found was from the Tiger. “Just be you. Nothing more, nothing less”, the Californian wrote. In other words: “Just be you. Nothing more, nothing less”.
“It gave me so much strength”, Kim later explained, admitting that the message fitted perfectly with the idea he had tried to repeat to himself all week: forget everything around him and just play his golf. The relationship between the two has grown closer in recent years and they are teammates in the TGL. Woods had also written to him after the Presidents Cup.
Kim‘s reply will probably come with a photograph. When asked afterwards if he had answered Tiger, he laughed: he hadn’t yet and was thinking of sending him a picture biting the gold medal.
First he had to win it. So Kim began the day with a one‑shot advantage and responded to all the pressure with a 64. He made four birdies in the first eight holes, added another at 11 and practically sealed the tournament on the par five 13th: he hit an 8‑iron from 163 yards that left the ball next to the hole and sank the eagle putt to open a four‑shot lead. A bogey at 17 was the only blemish on his card. He finished on 262 strokes, 18 under par, three ahead of Kazuki Higa, Ding Wenyi and Sadom Kaewkanjana. Higa would take silver and Sadom bronze after a playoff.
After the final putt came the shout, the South Korea flag over his shoulders, the water bath from his team‑mates and, above all, relief. “It’s an incredible feeling. I’m just glad it’s over”, he said. “This has probably been the longest day of my life”, he confessed.
Kim later explained that all week he had felt a tension different to any regular tour event. “I told myself it would be the longest week of my life”, he confessed. After months carrying the weight of what was at stake, he used a curious metaphor to explain how he felt: he felt that during the season he had been taking “buckets of water” out of his bag and getting lighter. “I think I’ll finally be able to sleep well tonight”.
Son’s precedent
Kim‘s story inevitably recalls one of the most famous military exemptions in South Korean sport: that of Son Heung-min.
In 2018, the then Tottenham footballer faced the Asian Games in Yakarta-Palembang in a very similar situation. Son was 26 and was included as one of the three over‑23 players allowed in the South Korean squad. For one of the Premier League’s big stars, winning gold meant being able to continue his career in Europe without the long interruption of military service.
South Korea reached the final against Japan and won 2-1 after extra time. Son was involved in both goal plays and that gold earned him the exemption. Two years later, taking advantage of the football break during the pandemic, he completed three weeks of basic military training in South Korea before returning to England.
In golf there are even more recent precedents. Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim, teammates of Tom Kim in Medinah just days earlier, obtained the same exemption thanks to the team gold won by South Korea at the Asian Games in 2023, where they won by 25 shots. Tom Kim already joins that list of beneficiaries.
The journey that began hastily on Sunday in Medinah ended six days later with a gold medal around his neck in Japan. In between there was a trans‑Pacific flight, 14 time zones, jet lag, rainy practice sessions, four days of pressure hard to find at any PGA Tour event and, before the final 18 holes, an unexpected message from Tiger Woods. “Just be you. Nothing more, nothing less”.
