Si Woo Kim, playing in the marquee group alongside defending champion Scottie Scheffler and five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, was on fire throughout the second round at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch.
After shooting 12-under through the first 17 holes, including a 17-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the par-3 17th, Kim came to the 18th tee needing a par on the final hole to become the 16th player on the PGA TOUR to shoot a 59. Kim was in the fair way off the tee, but his approach shot flew the green to the back left of the flag.
His chip would leave 19 feet for par and the putt wound up breaking to the right, leaving Kim with an 11-under 60 and five shots clear of the field at 18-under.
“I had a great grouping, some of my favorite two players, and it was fun to play with them,” Kim said. “I hit it great and putted great. So everything was perfect, other than the last hole. I’ll still take it. 60 is hard, but I was a little bit of thinking about the 59 after I make that on 17. It was a little bit of like adrenalin. Yeah, it was a tough shot, but I’ll take it still, 60.”
Kim, a Dallas resident, also spoke of the comfort of playing in the event.
“Staying in my own bed is a huge advantage, I think, especially close to home. My sponsor C.J. for the event. So everything feels like home and feels comfortable,” Kim said. “I play a couple times here, once a year, twice a year. So everything feels really comfortable here.”
World No. 1 Scheffler shot 63 playing alongside Kim on Friday afternoon.
“I was joking there earlier, I felt like I was hitting all my shots to 15, 20 feet and Si Woo was hitting all his shots to like 8 feet or closer,” Scheffler said. “Yeah, it was fun to watch. I was glad for myself to be able to kind of stay in the tournament. I made some nice putts there on the back nine, but it’s always fun to watch Si Woo do his thing.”
Jordan Spieth fired a bogey-free 62 on his second round to get him to 12-under as he looks for his first PGA Tour win in over four years.
“The birdie on 1 was big, and from there I had a pitching wedge into 1, gap wedge into 2, pitching wedge into 3, 9-iron into 4 and a par-5 and then a lob wedge,” Spieth said. “They were all very scorable clubs, but pins you had to kind of hit it on the correct side or hit a really good number at. But the hole started to look big, so that allows me to play a little bit safer on my approaches.”
