PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Si Woo Kim walked up to the 16th green at the TPC Sawgrass and couldn’t resist looking across the water at an island.
For those trying to catch Kim in The Players Championship, and for thousands of fans who anticipated the drama this tournament so often delivers, the infamous par-3 17th hole with its island green represented the best chance that the pressure might finally get to him.
He never flinched.
“I wasn’t nervous at all because I was leading,” Kim said. “I just focused on the middle of the green.”
Without so much as a deep breath, the 21-year-old from South Korea drew back his wedge, fired it at the middle of the green and resumed his march into the record book as the youngest winner of The Players Championship in its 44-year history.