It’s safe to say Joohyung “Tom” Kim isn’t in it for the money.
Look no further than a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Hitting the Green show. Kim, who is in Memphis, Tennessee, at TPC Southwind preparing for the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, said he has no idea how much money he won after capturing the Wyndham Championship last week.
“I haven’t checked. I don’t even know how much I even won,” Kim said. “Tiger never checked. If I can just play well, everything will take care of itself. I’m not even interested in how much it is.”
Kim made $1.312 million for his victory and is up to $2.529 million accumulated on the season. Not bad considering the history he made last week.
Tom Kim with us on Hitting the Green right now, says he hasn’t looked at his account balance: “I haven’t checked. I don’t even know how much I even won. Tiger never checked. If I can just play well, everything will take care of itself. I’m not even interested in how much it is.”
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) August 9, 2022
He’s the first winner on the PGA Tour born in the 2000s and the second-youngest winner since World War II, trailing only Jordan Spieth at the 2013 John Deere Classic.
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Dating back to 1983, he became the first player on the PGA Tour to begin a tournament with a quadruple bogey to go on to win the event.
Now, he’s in the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time. He’ll tee off at 1:55 p.m. ET off the 10th in the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday.
Kim also said he hasn’t been paying attention to the ongoing lawsuit between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf series. He’s playing where he wants to be, and that’s not changing.
“I mean, for me, our team, we’ve talked about this, but it’s always about playing the PGA Tour,” Kim said. “When I was younger I would see Tiger win on the PGA Tour, not somewhere else, so for me that was always the goal. I felt like when I would one day get really old and not be able to play the game anymore, I would want to at least feel comfortable with retiring and say I gave it — I played with the best players in the world.
“My goal and our team, the goal has always been to be here. I’m glad that I achieved that and hopefully I’ll be here for a very long time.”