The Olympic golf competitors is slightly just like the velodrome biking races during which the opponents cruise and feint till a ferocious sprint to the end line. Midway by means of the golf at these Video games, a rain-softened Le Nationwide has supplied little resistance as one of the best gamers on the earth jockey for place. Atop the leaderboard at -11 are three of the sweetest swingers within the sport: Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama and Tommy Fleetwood. Jon Rahm is in fourth place, two pictures from the rostrum. Lurking are big-time skills Joaquin Niemann (-6), Scottie Scheffler (-6), Matt Fitzpatrick (-6), Jason Day (-5) and Rory McIlroy (-5), amongst others.
Throughout Saturday’s third spherical, the peloton will start pedaling tougher. In relation to Olympic golf, fourth place has the identical that means as sixtieth. There are not any money payouts to guard, no FedEx Cup factors to hoard. Aggressive play now borders on obligatory.
“Because the week goes on, it turns into extra of a psychological problem,” says Fleetwood. “Clearly that [the top] three locations are what’s going to determine your week. Often, you end high 5, high 10, you’ve had an ideal week, however [here] it don’t imply something.”
This uncommon alternative to play in your homeland and for a medal affords new layers of stress however one participant on the leaderboard faces a singular stress-fest. Tom Kim, tied for fifth at -8, is enjoying for his future. The cherubic 22-year-old is representing South Korea the place each wholesome grownup male beneath 35 should serve a obligatory 21-month stint within the army. Profitable a Masters or U.S. Open won’t exempt him from service beneath the Orwellian-sounding Navy Manpower Administration. Neither will successful a FedEx Cup or Race to Dubai. The one method Kim—the youngest three-time winner on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods—can play his method out of this profession abyss is by successful an Olympic medal. (A gold on the Asian Video games, which has historically been a contest for amateurs, additionally counts. In 2023, execs had been allowed to play and Kim’s countryman Sungjae Im, then 25, and Si Woo Kim, 28, took benefit of this window by main Korea to victory within the group competitors; there’s rumbling that the Asian Video games will return to ams-only within the close to future.)
The looming army stint is Kim’s least-favorite subject and he bats away queries with curt platitudes. Following his second-round 68, I requested Kim how he can’t take into consideration the bigger that means of an Olympic medal. “Good query,” he stated with a good smile. “I’m simply making an attempt to concentrate on my sport. I’m a competitor and all of us play for a similar factor. It’s simply golf. So I’m simply making an attempt to place my head down and play.”
He feigned ignorance on when precisely he could be conscripted or how he would possibly presumably get out of it: “I don’t know. I want I may let you know.”
However, Tom, that is sort of a giant deal, proper?
“One hundred percent. Like, I’m not making an attempt to lie or something like that. I actually don’t know. I’ve been over within the U.S. for therefore lengthy, I simply carry on going.”
The specter of Sang Moon Bae haunts each proficient younger Korean golfer. Bae was a birdie machine who received two Tour occasions by age 25. A few months after representing the Internationals within the 2015 Presidents Cup, he misplaced his enchantment to the Navy Manpower Administration and needed to report for obligation as a rifleman. He was woke up at daybreak each morning for calisthenics and lengthy jogs. He was compelled to review army idea and spend numerous hours honing his marksmanship. (Sami Valimaki, presently in nineteenth place at these Video games, served six months within the Finnish military on the outset of his golf profession and describes his coaching succinctly: “Capturing heads.”) Bae has been a non-factor within the seven years since he left the military. “My swing is healthier,” he as soon as lamented to the AP’s Doug Ferguson, “however I’ve sort of misplaced my really feel for the best way to play golf. Not the best way to swing—I forgot the best way to play golf.”
That’s one drawback Kim doesn’t have as he has displayed a Spiethian skill to avoid wasting pictures as a finesse participant in a sport more and more outlined by energy. “He doesn’t hit it miles however he hits it far sufficient,” says Ben An, additionally representing Korea at these Video games. “He hits it very straight. He has nice contact across the greens. Nice putter. I’d like to see what he can do within the subsequent 10, 15, 20 years.” With a contact of wistfulness, An provides, “He’s a star already, so we’ll see what occurs within the subsequent couple years.”
An, 32, was granted a uncommon non-resident extension on his army service and hasn’t set foot in his homeland in 5 years.
Korea’s most embellished golfers, Okay.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang, did their army service of their early 20s earlier than they’d established themselves as professional golfers. Along with his Tour success, Kim has received the Singapore Worldwide and Indian Open and boasts two victories on the Asian Tour and a pair on the Korean Tour. (He turned professional at 15.) Kim was a jovial presence on the second season of Netflix’s Full Swing and, along with his simple smile, he makes a wonderful goodwill ambassador for his homeland. However his high-profile virtually works towards him in egalitarian Korea. “It sucks you must surrender golf,” says An, “however the different Koreans would say, ‘Everybody goes [into service] so why will we get exempt from it?’”
So Kim performs on, with a lot hanging within the steadiness. There isn’t any assure he’ll get one other likelihood at a medal in 4 years in Los Angeles. Even opponents from different nations who covet Olympic glory discover themselves rooting for Kim. “It’s a troublesome one,” says Australia’s Min Woo Lee. “It looks as if [Korean golfers] have much more stress than what I’ve and what different individuals have as a result of it impacts their lives fairly arduous. I imply, hopefully he will get it achieved. He’s positively adequate to get a gold medal. He’s a cracker of a golfer.”
However will Kim crack beneath the Olympian pressure? That’s the most intriguing query because the golf competitors roars into the weekend.
Prime Picture Caption: Tom Kim, 22, wants an Olympic medal to keep away from obligatory army service. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)
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