Getty Image / Keyur Khamar / PGA TOUR
Tom Kim turned in a scorecard of 72 (+2) in Round 1 of the PGA Championship. It was a formidable score considering his day could have gone a lot worse.
On the 6th hole, Tom Kim fell in a muddy creek. And he didn’t just step in the mud, his arms and legs were completely covered in mud.
Instead of admitting defeat to the course, Tom Kim then went to the creek and laid down in the water to wash the mud off of his body and busted out a spare shirt from his golf bag like a weekend warrior.
The crowd crowd rallied behind him with ‘one of us’ chants after Tom cleaned himself up.
Tom Kim fell in the mud.
Tom Kim laid down in a creek to clean himself up.
Tom Kim had a spare shirt ready.
Tom Kim needs his own stream. pic.twitter.com/r6rtXY3CZk
— Tim Reilly (@LifeOfTimReilly) May 18, 2023
ESPN shared a video clip of Tom Kim entering the creek to clean himself off. ESPN’s announcers were completely baffled by what was happening but it was evident to all that Tom was owning the moment.
Sometimes you just need to get cleaned up mid-round 😅 pic.twitter.com/cyoAbZtiBT
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 19, 2023
SportsCenter followed that up with another clip of Tom finding out that his antics went viral.
Tom Kim ended up taking a mud bath while looking for his golf ball 😂 pic.twitter.com/DbgQq32M6z
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 19, 2023
Tom Kim handled this incident perfectly. He could’ve gotten overly serious about it. Or tried to deflect questions from reporters.
Instead, he went viral *again* by leaning into it. The footage of Tom, the 19th ranked golfer in the world, laughing at the video of him going viral is priceless. It is hard to imagine a world where many of the biggest names in golf would be able to laugh at themselves in this manner.
Through 8 holes in Round 2, Kim is +8. It isn’t the PGA Championship he had in mind but he’ll at least have the muddy memories.