Sihwan Kim Has Made a Quarter-Million Dollars for Shooting a Combined +42 in Last Two LIV Tournaments
The second official LIV golf event took place over the weekend in Tuscon. The Fireballs held off the 4Aces to win the team competition (which people really care about) while Danny Lee won the individual title in a playoff. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau finished 16 strokes back in a tie for 44th. And a few spots worse than Bryson, alone in 48th place, was Sihwan Kim who shot +19 and finished 10 shots out of 47th place and 28 strokes behind Lee.
You may be thinking that's a rough weekend, but Kim actually played even worse at the other LIV event this year. In a 48th place finish at Mayakoba, Kim shot an astounding 23-over. That's 39 shots behind Charles Howell III. Thirty-nine.
For some perspective Taylor Moore won the Valspar Championship this weekend on the PGA Tour. Ryan Gerard and James Hahn finished tied for 71st and were only 20 shots back at +10. They made $16,686 each.
Through two tournaments and six rounds, Kim has shot a combined +42. He's shot 82, 77, 77, 78, 75 and 79. And he's made $240,000 for doing so. He made $120,000 for the last place finishes at both tournaments. The three players tied for 16th place at the Valspar this weekend each made $131,000.
And he's not new. Kim, who has two career victories on the Asian Tour, had at least one last-place LIV finish last season. At the tournament in Boston he shot a 17-over 87, the worst round in LIV history. Even a 63 the next day wasn't enough to keep him from finishing last.
According to the LIV website Kim had finishes of 20th, 5th, 45th, 48th, 15th and 44th during the now unofficial 2022 LIV Tour season. That 5th place finish was actually a tie for third at the event in Bangkok, which was a full field with Brooks and Bryson and DJ and Sergio and all those guys.
Somehow that was good enough to survive the roster turnover ahead of the official inaugural season, but you have to wonder how much longer he's going to get to hang around. Presumably there are other golfers looking for such a sweet payday who can get just a little closer to par. LIV might be better off giving local pros a shot every week. If Kim does get to keeping LIVing it up, it's definitely worth monitoring his scores because there's really no telling what he's capable of. For now, Sihwan should be considered the face of LIV golf.