The Sports Guru
Tom Kim has won the Genesis Scottish Open, closing with a bogey-free 64 at The Renaissance Club to end a title drought stretching back to October 2023. This covers the final round, the two-shot margin over Min Woo Lee, the years of near-misses that preceded it, and what the win sets up for Kim heading into the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Tom Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open with a closing 64, finishing 17 under par at The Renaissance Club to beat Min Woo Lee by two shots and end a wait for a PGA Tour title that had stretched back to the 2023 Shriners Children's Open. It is Kim's fourth tour win but his first in nearly three years, a gap that looked increasingly strange for a player who had won three times before his 22nd birthday and once looked like the tour's most obvious coming star.
How the final round went
Matt Fitzpatrick had carried a one-shot lead into Sunday, but Kim went after it from the first tee, birdieing three of his opening seven holes and never giving Fitzpatrick a route back into it. A closing round of six birdies and no dropped shots is a rare thing on any tour, and the best of them came at the par-4 16th, where an approach Kim rated among the finest he has struck set up his sixth birdie of the day. Fitzpatrick, who beat Scottie Scheffler in a play-off to win the RBC Heritage earlier this year, faded from contention as Kim pulled clear. Min Woo Lee cut the gap to a single shot late in the round, the closest anyone came to derailing the round, but Kim held on to finish two clear at 263.
The years between the wins
Kim's rise had been almost frictionless before this drought: two Shriners Children's Open titles back to back, then a third win in October 2023 before he had turned 22. What followed was a career that stalled rather than collapsed, just three top-10 finishes across 2024 and 2025 and no finish inside the top 25 at a major in that stretch, a quiet erosion of form for a player who had once looked destined to be a fixture at the top of leaderboards rather than a name working his way back into them. Kim did not dress up what the gap had felt like. "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." He was equally direct about who the win was for. "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."
The setting mattered too. Kim opened with a 65 and shared the halfway lead with Rory McIlroy and Jordan Smith after a 66, before a 68 in the third round left him in position to strike on Sunday. Playing a links event with home support has clearly meant something to him. "Coming home here, playing the Scottish Open, having a chance to win with the whole crowd behind you is unbelievable," he said. Of the shot that effectively won it, the approach into the 16th, he was blunt about where it ranks: "That second shot might be one of the best shots I've hit in my career so far."
What the win sets up
The timing could hardly be better. Kim now heads to Royal Birkdale for the Open Championship with genuine form behind him rather than hope, having already finished third at this year's US Open, the kind of major result that had been entirely absent from his 2024 and 2025 seasons. The Scottish Open win also carries two concrete prizes beyond the trophy: automatic places in next year's Masters and PGA Championship, removing any doubt about his route into two of the four biggest weeks in the sport. Becoming the first South Korean player to win the Scottish Open adds a historical footnote to a week that was really about something simpler: a player who had quietly stopped being talked about as a contender giving people a reason to start again.
Verdict: a win built on substance
A three-year gap between wins can mean many things, and for a player who broke through as early as Kim did, the easy read was always that the game had caught up with a prodigy. This was a different kind of evidence. Six birdies and no bogeys under pressure, with Fitzpatrick's lead erased inside the first seven holes and Min Woo Lee's late push absorbed rather than feared, is not the round of a golfer relying on nostalgia for his best form. Scottie Scheffler spent the same week at The Renaissance Club discussing his own frustration at four runner-up finishes without a win since January, a reminder that even the best players can go long stretches without the trophy. Kim's answer to his own version of that stretch arrived in the shape of a 64 with his name on the leaderboard where it used to sit as a matter of course.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kim closed with a bogey-free 6-under 64 to finish 17 under par (263) at The Renaissance Club, beating Min Woo Lee by two shots.
Kim's previous PGA Tour win came at the Shriners Children's Open in October 2023, meaning the Scottish Open ended a drought of nearly three years. It is the fourth PGA Tour title of his career.
Min Woo Lee finished runner-up, two shots behind Kim, having cut the deficit to one shot late in the final round before Kim held on. Matt Fitzpatrick had held the outright lead entering the final round but fell away.
The victory gives Kim automatic entry into the 2027 Masters and PGA Championship, and comes with genuine form heading into the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, having also finished third at this year's US Open.
Sources: Reporting from BBC Sport, corroborated by CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, NBC Sports and Forbes.
