A Lim Kim caps off wild year with U.S. Women’s Open title

Korea’s A Lim Kim pulled off the upset at the U.S. Women’s Open in her major championship debut.

The 2020 major golf championship season came to an end on a frigid, soggy day at Champions Golf Club in Houston on Monday. And in this most unexpected year, the unlikely winner did so in the most improbable fashion.

A Lim Kim had never played a major championship before the U.S. Women’s Open this week. She had never even played in the United States. The 25-year-old had only competed in two events on the LPGA Tour in her career, and both were back home in Korea.

So it was fitting that Kim, the 94th-ranked player in the world, arrived in Houston this week with no expectations other than getting some valuable experience playing in America. When she began the final round, postponed to Monday by torrential rain that drenched the course on Sunday, five shots off the lead, still there were no thoughts that she could actually win. After all, it had been 25 years since a player had come from that far behind to win this tournament.

But then Kim did something nobody expected. She birdied her final three holes to steal the trophy away from Amy Olson and World No. 1 Jin-young Ko, her score of four-under 67 the best of the day.

When Kim arrived at the tee on the par-three 16th hole, she was even-par for the tournament and two shots behind Olson. Her approach shot settled to three feet, and suddenly she was just one behind. At the 17th, her second shot took a perfect left-hand turn to wind up two feet from the cup, setting up a tap-in birdie that put her alone atop the leadership. To cap it off, Kim stuck her approach at the 18th to 10 feet and rolled in the birdie to finish at three-under for the tournament. No one else made three straight birdies on any stretch of holes on Monday.

“The tee boxes on a couple of holes were actually pulled forward, so I was able to make some good shots and ended up with three birdies in a row that I wasn’t really expecting,” she told Golf Channel’s Cara Banks through an interpreter following the round.

Kim was unknown to an American audience before this week, but in Korea she’s a rising star in a country that continually produces them. She turned pro while still a teenager in 2013 and has been playing on the LPGA of Korea since 2016. She’s won twice over the last three seasons and finished 11th on the money list in 2019. Two years ago, she took seven-time major champion Inbee Park to the last hole in the final of a match-play event.

That she pulled off the three straight birdies to win was unlikely. That she did so in conditions in Houston not conducive to low scoring is incredible. The temperature was a chilly 42 degrees when play resumed just after 8 local time on Monday morning. Players donned large ear muffs and puffy jackets in between shots just to stay warm.

But it was a piece of clothing Kim wore all through the tournament that stood out the most. Her white face mask is a reminder that the pandemic, the reason why this event was being played in December in the first place, significantly touched the golf world in 2020. Seven major championships across the men’s and women’s games were able to be played — only one in its original slot — producing six first-time winners.

Kim is the last of a unique slate of champions. Now it’s on to 2021 and the hope that golf, like the rest of the world, can return to some resemblance of normalcy.