Tom Kim (-8) leads the Travelers Championship without any dispute or debate. Today he has handed in a card of 62 strokes at the TPC River Highlands and is two ahead of his immediate pursuers, who are a troop: Rickie Fowler, Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Askhay Bhatia, all of them with records of 64.
The cheerful Kim is involved in titanic tasks, very Korean-like, since with this week in Cromwell, Connecticut, he already chains eight consecutive weeks of competition. Yes, eight, you read correctly. It can even go further: of the last twelve weeks he has competed in eleven, including three Majors in the strenuous series.
Does anyone still remember that Valero Texas Open that Bhatia won against Denny McCarthy in a final round and tiebreak of madness? It was the tournament that was played immediately before the Masters and there was Tom Kim, who since then (centuries have passed) and until today has competed every week except one, with the aforementioned chain of eight consecutive tournaments as a culmination…
The reason for such a deployment is very simple: Tom feels that his game has been sharpening little by little, more and more, and did not want to stop that evolution, that momentum, as he confessed today. Surely this 62 translates as a reward for consistency, because it is likely that, even he, began to feel slightly impatient. It is true that the consistency was there, it was seen, but the results were not quite leading. Some people need rest more often; and then there are Tom Kim or Sungae Im…
If we discount the leader, dominating from his pinnacle, behind him crowd up to 25 players within a margin of three strokes. As already explained in a previous chronicle, it seems that Scottie Scheffler (-5) has regained energy and sensations. At least, sensations. The energy will have to be certified in future rounds, as the mental wear and tear that the Texan player referred to this week is very treacherous. Also watch out for Schauffele (-5), Finau (-5), Matsuyama (-4) or Morikawa (-4), who are already well positioned.
A curiosity: this Friday, June 21, the leader, Tom Kim, turns 22 and perhaps because of his age he better understands the naturalness with which he chains weeks of competition… But the fact is that he has his birthday on the same day as Scottie Scheffler, although the Texan is turning 28, and both celebrated it in advance, last Tuesday. They did it with pizza, by the way. And anticipating, both have also given themselves good cards at the start of the tournament.
