NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Tom Kim played bogey-free golf during a tight race to the finish Sunday and closed with a 6-under-par 64 for a two-shot victory in the Scottish Open, his first PGA Tour triumph since fall 2023.
It was the latest and best sign the 24-year-old from South Korea had his game on track after spending all season outside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He finished third in the U.S. Open a month ago, and he outlasted a strong field and a marathon day at the Renaissance Club to get back to the winner’s circle.
Kim, who reached as high as No. 11 in the world at age 21 when he won in Las Vegas nearly three years ago, delivered the clinching blow with a shot from 203 yards to six feet on the par-4 16th, giving him a two-shot lead in the tournament that’s co-sanctioned by the Europe-based DP World Tour.
“That second shot might be one of the best shots I’ve hit in my career so far,” Kim said.
He finished with a four-foot par putt on the 18th and posted a 72-hole score of 17-under 263 as his closest pursuer, Australia’s Min Woo Lee, watched from the 18th fairway and realized he needed to hold out from the fairway to force a playoff. Lee closed with a par for a 67 to finish alone in second.
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who shared the 54-hole lead with Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre when the fog-delayed third round was completed Sunday morning, had a 69 and tied for third with MacIntyre (69), Japan’s Keita Nakajima (67) and American player Johnny Keefer (67).
It was a big finish for Keefer, the Korn Ferry Tour player of the year in 2025 who earned one of three spots to the British Open that tees off Thursday at Royal Birkdale in northern England. The other two spots went to Michael Thorbjornsen of the United States and Victor Perez of France.
Keefer had been the third alternate and Thorbjornsen the fourth alternate for the year’s final major championship tournament, and now they have tee times secured.
Second-ranked Rory McIlroy got within one shot of the lead Sunday before the co-leaders teed off when he shot 30 on the front nine. The six-time major winner from Northern Ireland wound up with a 64 to tie for seventh with Thorbjornsen. McIlroy was tied for the 18- and 36-hole lead until a 73 in the third round left him six shots back.
“It’s nice to sign this week off with a good score, but I know I need to do a bit of work between now and next Thursday to feel really comfortable with my game,” McIlroy said. “But I don’t feel like it’s too far away. There’s definitely some positive signs.”
Kim got off to a fast start in his PGA Tour career with a third-place finish in the 2022 Scottish Open on a sponsor exemption as a 20-year-old. He won twice on tour that year, added another victory in Vegas in 2023, then played in the Paris Olympics and the Presidents Cup in 2024.
The last two years has been a struggle, though, and Kim said he worked hard without as much attention to get going in the right direction.
“I’ve had a tough couple of years,” he said. “I got to taste a lot of that humble pie, and I got to really learn about myself, and I’m still trying to grow, still trying to learn, still got a long way to go. But this one I wanted to dedicate to the people that were in my corner the whole time and struggled with me and who celebrated with me.”
Fisk takes playoff on third hole
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Steven Fisk outlasted Taylor Pendrith in the ISCO Championship for his second PGA Tour victory, two-putting for par on the third hole of a playoff.
The Atlanta native closed with a 3-under 67 in cloudy and breezy conditions at Hurstbourne Country Club to match Pendrith (65) at 16-under 264 through 72 holes.
The event was sanctioned by both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. The 29-year-old Fisk gets into the PGA Championship but not the Masters next year. Last October, he won the Sanderson Farms Championship for his first PGA Tour title.
“Kind of feel like all the work I’ve been putting in paid off,” Fisk said. “It’s been a frustrating year trying to back up that first win. I’ve showed some pretty good signs of some solid golf, but haven’t really had that opportunity to win a golf tournament that I’ve been kind of craving. It was unbelievable to get it done again.”
Pendrith finished with a 65. The 35-year-old Canadian was trying to add a second victory after winning the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson in 2024.
On the final trip down the par-4 18th, Fisk made a three-foot par putt after splitting the fairway and hitting his approach shot to 28 feet. Pendrith drove into a fairway bunker, left his approach well short and missed a 10-foot par try.
On the first extra hole, Pendrith raced a nine-foot birdie try four feet past. They scrambled for pars on the second, with Fisk going from bunker to bunker and blasting out to three feet.
“In my opinion, the playoffs are a little easier; there’s less nerves,” Fisk said. “You’ve already locked up a great finish, there’s not really a whole lot to lose. You’re just going out there trying to win, and it’s either going to be you or the other guy. I think that’s almost calming in a way.”
Canadian players Ben Silverman (66) and Aaron Wise (69) were a stroke out the playoff. Lucas Glover, atop the leaderboard after each of the first three rounds, had a 71 to tie for fifth at 14 under with Davis Chatfield (66) and Norway’s Kristoffer Ventura (66).
Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger (72) tied for 15th at 11 under, while fellow Baylor School graduate Luke List (70) tied for 49th at 6 under.
Ryu’s roll continues on LPGA Tour
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — A second major title in a three-week stretch.
The lowest round — an 11-under 60 in the third round — in an LPGA major.
It was quite the weekend at the Evian Championship for Haeran Ryu, the latest South Korean sensation in women’s golf.
Ryu, the winner of the Women’s PGA Championship at Minnesota’s Hazeltine National Golf Club on June 29, gave up a three-shot overnight lead, birdied No. 18 to make a playoff, and beat Canada’s Brooke Henderson on the first extra hole to win the fourth LPGA major of the year.
“This,” said the 25-year-old Ryu, drenched in Champagne and cradling the trophy in her left arm, “is just a dream right now.”
A day after rolling in nine birdies and an eagle to set the scoring record for women’s majors, Ryu couldn’t make a putt at Evian Golf Resort and found herself teeing off on the par-5 18th without a birdie on her card and in a tie for the lead with Japanese golfer Aki Iwai. Henderson — a two-time major winner and 2022 Evian champ — was a shot back and on a charge after back-to-back front-nine eagles, including a hole-in-one.
With Henderson hitting her second shot to eight feet on the final hole, Ryu needed an elusive birdie from further out to ensure being in a playoff.
A putt finally dropped to complete her par round of 71, Iwai missed her birdie putt to fall out of contention as she had to settle for a 69 and solo third place, and Henderson curled in for an eagle and a 64 to take the tourney to extra holes on a gorgeous day beside Lake Geneva in the Alps.
Ryu and Henderson, who were tied at 19-under 265 after 72 holes of regulation went back up No. 18. Ryu found the middle of the fairway, while Henderson drove left into the rough and had to lay up.
Ryu hit her second shot onto the green and left an eagle putt three feet short. That proved to be the distance needed for the win after Henderson could only make par, and Ryu made no mistake.
“It was so tough today because my putt always missed the cup,” Ryu said. “Just made the one birdie on the last hole. Before these three weeks. I didn’t have a major championship — now two in a row. I am so happy, I can’t believe it.”
And now, for the first time in women’s golf, there have been double major winners in the same year.
Top-ranked Nelly Korda won the first two of 2026 — the Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open — but the American star wasn’t around for the weekend at the Evian Championship after missing the cut.
Johnson wins again; this time it’s a major
AKRON, Ohio — Zach Johnson won his first PGA Tour Champions major title in the final event at Firestone Country Club, closing with a 2-under 68 for a six-shot victory in the Kaulig Companies Championship.
Johnson had a 63 in the third round that staked him to a four-shot lead entering the final round, and even with a pair of bogeys in his opening four holes, no one came particularly close. Johnson chipped in from 20 feet on his last hole.
“I love this place. I love it,” Johnson said. “I’ve loved it since I first stepped foot on it. I just think it fits me. It fits my eye, but it fits me in the sense that you can’t fake it around here. May have looked like that a little bit today, but you have to execute shots.”
It was Johnson’s third win in his rookie season on the 50-and-older tour, allowing him to close the gap on Stewart Cink in the Charles Schwab Cup season standings. The victory makes Johnson eligible for The Players Championship next year.
Johnson finished the 72-hole tournament at 15-under 265. He won a week after skipping the U.S. Senior Open to play in the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, where he tied for ninth.
Boo Weekley closed with a 66 to finish alone in second, followed by Rory Sabbatini, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medalist from Slovakia, who had a 66-66 weekend. Cink finished fourth with a closing round of 68.
The Kaulig Companies’ sponsorship is ending, and the tour is leaving Firestone — which also previously hosted a World Golf Championship event — for Newport Beach, California, next year to play its fifth major.
“It’s kind of bittersweet if it really truly is the last year,” Johnson said. “I hope it’s not.”
Good with the clubs, too
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Nev. — Former tennis player Mardy Fish won his third American Century Championship title, beating 2025 winner Joe Pavelski by six points in the celebrity tournament.
Fish had a 20-point day under the modified Stableford scoring system to get to 72 at Edgewood Tahoe. The 44-year-old American who retired from the ATP Tour after the 2015 U.S. Open also won the celebrity golf event in 2020 and 2024.
Pavelski had an 18-point round. The former hockey player was the first-round leader.
NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was third at 59.