Michael Kim has been flirting with disaster for a while now.
He has missed 13 cuts this season, three of which have come over the past three weeks. He has only one top-10 this season, a T-6 at The American Express in January—his second event of the season.
Consequently, after last week’s Black Desert Championship, in which he missed the weekend by two strokes, Kim dropped down to 129th in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings. The top 125 players earn PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season, meaning Kim had fallen outside the necessary threshold to retain membership.
He needed to make a move at this week’s Shriners Children Open, as another missed cut would send him in the wrong direction. Luckily for him, he opened his first round with a solid 5-under 66.
He then carded a 1-under 70 during a weather-plagued second round, which saw 50 mph gusts delay play. Kim, therefore, made the weekend with ease.
Another round in the 60s followed on Saturday, but nothing compared to what he did during Sunday’s final round. Kim posted a 9-under 62, soared up the leaderboard to 18-under par, and walked off the golf course sitting within the top-five. Better yet, the PGA Tour has Kim projected to finish 111th in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings after this week, proof that Kim’s final round helped him mightily.
“It’s not a huge monkey off my back, but a decent-sized one,” Kim said.
“Including this one and the next few events would be huge for keeping my card for next year. To be able to pull off a round like I did today is a huge boost of confidence for the upcoming tournaments.”
Kim will not play at next week’s ZOZO Championship, opting to take a few weeks off to practice with his swing coach, Sean Foley. He will return for the World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico, which is scheduled to begin on Nov. 7. He will still face some pressure at that event, which will be held on a Tiger Woods-designed course. But it will not be a complete fight for his PGA Tour survival.
That must feel good, and Kim, an avid X-user, noted as such after his 62 on Sunday.
“Golf is a funny game,” Kim added.
“I felt better off the tee [on Saturday]; I just couldn’t get the putts to go in. Today, I was able to get some putts to go in. I had a couple of fortunate breaks to come in, and I’m happy to finish the way I did.”
His electric final round featured two big highlights. First, Kim chipped in for birdie on the 249-yard par-3 8th, the most challenging hole on the course. Then, the former California Golden Bear rattled off five birdies in a row after making his only bogey of the day at the 11th.
“I think after I bogeyed 11—kind of a sloppy bogey. But then to make a birdie on 12 right after, and then as soon as I hit a really good tee shot on 13, felt like I could get on a run and was able to do so,” Kim said when asked if he knew when this round began to feel special.
Kim almost added another par-breaker on the par-4 18th, but his nine-footer just slid by. Setting a new career low was not meant to be.
“Must have kicked a little left coming in, but still happy with the round for sure,” Kim said of his final birdie try.
Yet, he needed that 62, a round that will help secure status for 2025.
“Trying to get inside that 125, it’s huge,” Kim said.
“Trying to lock up my playing privileges for next year, The Players and all that. So, it’s a good relief, but I also know I still have to keep playing well in the next two or three events.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.