PARIS—The Olympic golf competitors is somewhat just like the velodrome biking races, during which the opponents cruise and feint till a ferocious sprint to the end line. Halfway through the golf at these Games, a rain-softened Le Nationwide has supplied little resistance as one of the best gamers on this planet 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 photographs 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 around the peloton will start pedaling tougher. On the subject of Olympic golf, 4th 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 you understand that [the top] three locations are what’s going to resolve your week. Normally, you end high 5, high 10, you’ve had an incredible week, however [here] it don’t imply something.”
This uncommon alternative to play in your homeland and for a medal gives new layers of strain, 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 below 35 should serve a obligatory 21-month stint within the navy. Successful a Masters or U.S. Open won’t exempt him from service below the Orwellian-sounding Navy Manpower Administration. Neither will successful a FedEx Cup or Race to Dubai. The one approach Kim—the youngest three-time winner on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods—can play his approach 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 professionals have 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 workforce competitors; there’s rumbling that the Asian Video games will return to ams-only within the close to future.)
The looming navy stint is Kim’s least favourite matter, and he bats away queries with curt platitudes. Following his second spherical 68 I requested Kim how he can not take into consideration the bigger that means of an Olympic medal. “Good query,” he mentioned with a decent smile. “I’m simply making an attempt to deal with 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 probably get out of it: “I don’t know. I want I might inform you.”
However, Tom, that is form of an enormous deal, proper?
“100%. 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 gifted 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 attraction 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 check navy idea and spend numerous hours honing his marksmanship. (Sami Valimaki, at the moment 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: “Taking pictures heads.”) Bae has been a non-factor within the seven years since he left the military. “My swing is best,” he as soon as lamented to the AP’s Doug Ferguson, “however I’ve form of misplaced my really feel for the way to play golf. Not the way to swing—I forgot the way to play golf.”
That’s one downside Kim doesn’t have, as he has displayed a Spiethian potential to save lots of photographs 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.”
Korea’s most adorned golfers, Ok.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang, each did their navy service of their early 20’s 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 superb goodwill ambassador for his homeland. However his high-profile nearly works towards him in egalitarian Korea. “It sucks you need to quit golf,” says An, “however the different Koreans would say, ‘Everybody goes [into service], so why can 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 probability 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 strain than what I’ve and what different folks have as a result of it impacts their lives fairly laborious. I imply, hopefully he will get it accomplished. He’s positively ok to get a gold medal. He’s a cracker of a golfer.”
However will Kim crack below the Olympian pressure? That’s the most intriguing query because the golf competitors roars into the weekend.
High Picture Caption: Tom Kim, 22, wants an Olympic medal to keep away from obligatory navy service. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)
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