Tom Kim says it’s all systems go to participate in Playoffs after ankle injury

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tom Kim may not have been able to be at the Wyndham Championship to defend his first career PGA TOUR title this week, but he zoomed into the CBS broadcast from his Dallas home Saturday to give a progress report on the ankle injury that sidelined him from Sedgefield Country Club.

“You know, ankle has gotten a lot better,” said the 21-year-old Kim, who suffered an injury during this year’s Open Championship when he stepped off a patio at his rental home and suffered a grade-1 tear in his ankle. “Obviously it's just not going to heal right away, but I got a thumbs up from my trainers and from my doctors. So hopefully I'll be ready to tee up on Thursday.”

Tom Kim reflects on last year's victory at Wyndham Championship

With the playoffs beginning next week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, Kim hopes the downtime has helped his chances to make it to East Lake. As it stands now, Kim sits at 14th in the FedExCup standings and would be in the field for the TOUR Championship.

“It's hard sitting at home and not being able to be where I got my first win,” acknowledged Kim, currently 18th in the Official World Golf Ranking. “It's tough as a player to not be able to compete. But you know, I'm definitely enjoying the coverage and it's kind of nice to see all the guys playing well. I know how big of a week it is for everyone. … I'm very unfortunately sitting down in my home recliner grandpa chair. But no, it's been good.”

Kim earned his first PGA TOUR victory in his TOUR debut at the Wyndham Championship, rebounding from a quadruple-bogey on his opening hole to win by five strokes. Kim shot 61 in the final round, which featured a front-nine 28. He captured his second title last October at the Shriners Children's Open, becoming the first player since Tiger Woods to win twice on TOUR before turning 21. He also starred for the International Team at last year's Presidents Cup.

Revisiting Tom Kim's first career win at 2022 Wyndham Championship

More recently, Kim finished tied for second at The Open, thanks to rounds of 68-68-67 over the final three days. He’s also notched five other top-10 finishes on the season, including a T8 at the U.S. Open and T6 at the Genesis Scottish Open.

“I think I've learned a lot about what helps me play my best golf,” Kim added. “I think that comes a lot from playing a lot of practice rounds with a lot of my good friends, Scottie (Scheffler), Jordan (Spieth), all these guys (who) have so much experience and being able to just pick their brain about a lot of stuff.

“… You know, when you see guys like Rory (McIlroy) hit unbelievable drives and you feel like you need to do that. I really got into that mindset of just taking care of what I can do, making sure that I can get my best score out of each round and not get caught up in the hole where you chase a lot of distance and need to do special things. It's just more of you're just playing golf; you're just trying to put the best score on the scorecard. I'm very lucky to have a really good team around me that's helped me with that process. … I'm just trying to keep learning and keep going upwards.”