Harbour Town Golf Links boasts the smallest greens on the PGA Tour, but they proved to be the undoing of Si Woo Kim during the final round of the RBC Heritage.
Kim started the day one shot behind Ian Poulter, but he took a two-shot lead into the final four holes as he sought his third career PGA Tour win. But the South Korean phenom’s putter went cold at the worst possible time, as he missed four straight putts from inside 8 feet to fall into a playoff he would eventually lose to Satoshi Kodaira.
Kim entered the week ranked 209th on Tour in strokes gained: putting. His woes culminated on the 72nd hole, where he stuffed his final approach of regulation inside 7 feet only to miss a putt that would have earned him a tartan jacket.
“Rather than it being nerves, I think with the weather it kind of slowed down the greens and it kind of affected them, how I made the putts,” Kim told reporters. “But I tried my best and the putts didn’t drop. It is what it is.”
Full-field scores from the RBC Heritage
RBC Heritage: Articles, photos and videos
Kim earned his first career title at the 2016 Wyndham Championship, and next month he’ll defend his title at The Players. He was attempting to join Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia as the only international players with three or more PGA Tour wins before turning 23.
Kim’s title hopes ended when Kodaira rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole, but the damage was done earlier in regulation when he pushed a 4-footer for par on No. 15, missed an 8-footer for birdie on No. 16 and missed a 6-foot par putt on No. 17 before missing what would have been the winning putt.
“I didn’t have the momentum obviously on the final hole of regulation. I missed a short one,” he said. “But I give props to my opponent, he made a great putt on the last one.”
Source: Internet
