GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 12, 2026

Tom Kim

The Renaissance Club

Press Conference

CLARE BODEL: Tom, welcome to the Media Centre for the first time this week, and here you are as champion. Just tell us a little bit about how today felt for you and how you're feeling now.

TOM KIM: It's awesome. It's been a while since I lifted a trophy up. I forgot how heavy it was.

No, it's really cool. Obviously I was trying to win a golf tournament. There's always pressure. There's always nerves. But I think the experience I've built over the last few years, I really leaned on it, and I trusted my practice, all the work that I put in to try to put myself back in these positions. Today was a really cool day for me.

CLARE BODEL: Obviously a few years ago, this was a tournament where you announced yourself to the world, almost. Does it feel like a nice full-circle moment winning the trophy here now?

TOM KIM: Yeah, for this tournament for some reason, I've always wanted to come back, and I've really always wanted to win. This is where it all started for me. Gave me status and I finished third year. It got me almost temporary status and I secured it next week at the British and I went on to play two times that year and played in The Presidents Cup.

I've had some heartbreaks here. I finished third. I played in the final group when Rory won. I've been close here a couple times. To be able to just kind of finish it off today and really win an event like this, it's really cool for me.

Q. You were tearful when you found out you had won, can you explain how you were feeling then, winning in Scotland and an event sponsored by a Korean car company?

TOM KIM: Yeah, it's really hard to put into words. If it wasn't for all this media, all the photos, I would probably go in my room and try for can I couple hours. Just really, it's surreal. You know, I've had long days, long nights, early mornings, and just a lot of just -- I just remember how I felt a lot of the times when I wasn't playing well, and it was difficult. Golf, I can't say that I'm going to continue this run. Golf is a very up-and-down sport. That's something I've learned.

I'm definitely appreciating this more now than I did a couple years ago, which is really cool. So just -- I thought about my family, all the people around my corner that have suffered with me and also celebrated with me and kind of remembering all those people really brought tears to my eyes.

Q. You'll want to celebrate this first but what does it mean going into Birkdale you? Finished joint second in an Open before. This must give you huge confidence?

TOM KIM: You know, it's funny, I'm not really going to carry this week into next week. Once tomorrow happens, I'm going to putt this week behind me. That's something about golf that I've learned a lot is you have a good week, you put it behind you and you move on. You can't put your satisfaction into winning all the time because it's hard to win three or four times a year. You know, I'm going to enjoy tonight. I'm going to call the people that mean the world to me, and I'm going to go into next week with a fresh mindset. I'm going to try to rest as good as I can, and you know, hopefully I can kind of start fresh on Thursday for next week and get ready.

Q. You told us out there on Thursday that one of the things you really liked about coming here was the water. Are you going to fill the trophy water or something a lot stronger?

TOM KIM: I still don't drink alcohol, so probably it's going to be a good water night for me. I'm not going to plan on drinking alcohol yet. It's going to take a few cans.

Q. Bob MacIntyre has fantastic support here. How did you come in with the support and use that to your advantage today? I think you spoke to this a couple years ago when Bob was struggling, when he was playing away, and you spoke about just how difficult it is for someone being away from home. What does this mean to you, and do you feel that this is now maybe a Scottish family for you here? Bob has a Korean family; he has a huge following, I believe, in Korea.

TOM KIM: It's a very interesting thing, right. Like we play in the U.S., and you know, a lot of us -- I mean, every golfer in the world wants to play the hurt and that's the dream. But there's a lot more that goes into golf than playing on the PGA TOUR. There's a lot of sacrifices need to be made.

Rob has just done such an amazing job in his career. He's one of best players in the world. He's always a good laugh. I've always enjoyed playing with him, spending time with him. I can definitely see the Scottish fans behind him which is really cool for me to see, at least because I'm a foreigner like everybody else. And Rob is playing in front of his home crowd 95 percent of the Scottish fans wanted Rob to win today, but I can still feel the love.

The Scottish fans are some of best fans in the world. They applaud for really good shots and understand what a good shots is. It's Home of Golf; so to be able to win a trophy here, it's awesome for me.

Q. I think a lot of us have been asking you this week about what the secret is here. You've had success here the last four or five times you've been. One of the words you've used is patience for links golf. Curious, how much has patience been a part of your journey to get back?

TOM KIM: I've had to taste a lot of patience the last couple years. I think golf and just life in general, patience goes such a long way. I've gotten to really understand, the last couple years, no matter how good you do, things might go your way. Things might not go your way and you just have to accept that.

I guess that comes with maturity, comes with time, comes with growing, and links golf is the perfect way to really describe certain things. Just you have to, you might hit a really good drive and have a really bad bounce and go in the bunker.

And bunkers here are not easy. They are not like in the States where if it's in the bunker, you're able to make par, birdie. Sometimes you might go up on the lip and sometimes you might be in the mid of the bunker. It's very luck dependent, and you just have to kind of take it in and whether it goes your way or doesn't go your way, you just have to kind of keep going and links golf is exactly like that.

Q. Interesting saw that I part of the patience came on the fourth hole. I think that's the first time you took the lead. You talk about hitting a good shot and getting a bad break. Looked you can might have hit in a different. You can talk about that finding that ball and how important that was?

TOM KIM: Fourth hole into the wind is a very, very difficult hole. Downwind it's actually a lot easier but into the wind that hole plays so much harder. Hitting a good drive and finishing up in a divot, obviously you'd like a clean lie.

But I think I've done -- me not realizing this in the moment but looking back, I've done such a good job because I've been in a divot a couple times and I've made birdie, I think, almost 95 percent, and I think that comes from just looking at it, knowing what it's like, why did this happen, more so like okay, how can I use this to my advantage. It was into the wind there, so it was nice for me to be able to kind of knock it down because I was in a divot and I had to trap it a little bit more.

I think I've just taken every adversity to a positive and just tried to use it to my advantage.

Q. You experienced a lot of success early, even before you reached the TOUR and you get on TOUR and you win pretty quickly. Were you shocked to struggle or to going through a sustained period where it didn't suddenly come easy for the first time?

TOM KIM: I would say, you know, I've worked long hours in my life to try to win out here. When I first won, I would say it's just, okay, all the work that you've put in, you get -- I guess I've gotten rewarded and I'm very fortunate.

But now I look at it more as like, you can -- you can put exactly ten hours in, but some guy might win and some guy might not. Like there's so much that goes into golf that not -- you don't get rewarded every single time.

But I think as I've gotten older, I've gotten to really understand that these moments are something to be really grateful for, instead of more like, oh, I won.

I think I was too young to really comprehend of what was happening, and being 24 now, this is my fifth year on tour and I've been a pro for almost ten years. I feel like my journey is just starting because I'm getting older and maturing in a lot of ways.

Q. At some points last year, you went without a swing coach, and now with Sean. What kind of drew you into wanting someone there to help you again, and why him and how has that worked?

TOM KIM: Yeah, I was working with someone that I've had for a long time, and when I -- when we split, I thought it was more mental. I thought it wasn't really golf swing. I thought it was more mental and thought it was all me.

Funny thing how this happened. I got a call, and he was asking about -- a friend of mine called me and asked me how I was doing. I was explaining to him about golf, just kind of how I think it's this, I think it's that. I'm going through these patches. I feel like I'm playing good but I haven't been able to put it together.

And he just recommended me. He was like, why don't you just do try and see Sean? Sean has complimented you a lot in your golf swing. He has the experience. He's been out here. He's worked with a lot of the best players in the world. Why don't you go try and see him?

I got his number and I just called him, like, hey, what do you think? I didn't really put a lot of heart into it. It was more of a quick phone call. Just kind of had his opinion on a few things. He sat me down and just explained the things that I wasn't doing right, and I tried it for a little while. We kept communicating.

You know, he's really helped me organise a lot of things, just mentally. He's gone through a lot in his life, and he's really shown me a lot of that. He showed me the experience that he has, and I've been able to grow on that and we've won in just a short span of working together and obviously we are still going to work harder. We are going to work smarter. But you know, having him in my corner, it's really cool.

Q. You touched on it, obviously, at the start but you said to Tim you've had to eat a lot of humble pie over the last couple years and you've learnt a lot about yourself. Can you give more insight into what you've learned?

TOM KIM: I think one of the -- I've mentioned this earlier, just moments ago, but I think one of the biggest things is that sometimes all the work that you put in might not get rewarded. You know, it's very easy to think that, oh, you know, you put in 12 hours every day, and then you should be playing well. It didn't really work like that. You really treat life as each moment. Just be fully in the present in a way of not really -- when you are practicing, when you are working, you're not really thinking about, you know, what could come and what has happened before. You're fully focused on, okay, what am I trying to do today and how can I get better you keep adding those days in.

I think you live more towards the person that you're becoming when you're working that hard instead of the person that, you know, when you win, it's flashy and all that stuff. But I'm more proud of the moments I didn't give up and I had doubts and all those things. Instead of going the other way, I kept going. I'm more proud of that than holding a trophy.

So I think for the rest of my career, it been a big cornerstone for me of leaning into it. I think I'm always going to treat golf as -- it's always going to slap you in the face and put you back to, where, it's undefeated. So it's going to putt you back in your place, and next week, it's a major, but like I said, I'm not going to look into a week -- bring this week. I'm going to treat next week as a new week and treat it day-by-day. I think it's been big for me.

Q. On today, after 16, 17, one of our commentators called it one of best ball-striking displays he's seen in a very long time. How would you assess your ball-striking today?

TOM KIM: It was good today. I was very in control of my ball. Conditions were tough. I think I started off really nicely. Made a good putt on 1 for birdie and really the shot on 2, I think I'll remember for a long time.

But it's not an easy pin, especially straight into the wind and hitting a 2-iron in 185 yards. You really can't -- there's not a lot of room for error and to hit that to seven feet, even though I didn't make the putt, that set the tone for the day. I didn't really have a lot of stress other than the last hole. I just -- I kept putting into play, putting it in position. I kept kind of tag ago long. It was a pretty cool feeling to be able to control the ball that well today.

Q. Over the last 18 months or so, was there a low point that was most confusing, most difficult, like this sport is just brutal to me?

TOM KIM: A lot of moments like that. I can't really say this exact moment. But there was a lot of moments out on the golf course that felt that way.

And you know, it just -- I guess it's just part of golf. I've never really gone through that in my career. I can't say that I won't go through it again. Golf is just so unique and so different.

But you know, I'm not -- at least I now know I have the experience of how to deal with those moments.

So I'm going to try to hold those moments to my core for as long as I can and all I can do is just keep growing, I guess.

Q. Is there a fellow pro or Tour colleague that you sought counsel from? Sounds like you've matured on what golf can mean to you and sounds like you learned from someone else.

TOM KIM: Not exactly someone else. I think Scottie has been such a great role model for a lot of people. If you listen to his press conferences, it comes from a lot of self-awareness and a lot of maturity.

You know, I've gotten to be able to -- obviously on TGL being on Tiger's team, I've been able to ask him questions on certain things. He's been really helpful a lot of the time. You know, this was my first win in three years, and the first person that texted me was Tiger Woods. Shows you the person he is and how much he cares. Those people that have achieved so much, not a specific person, but just listening to their interviews, seeing how they talk, and when I ask them advice, they have been really nice.

I've kind of leaned into the best players in the world, even on YouTube, I'm listing to them speaking in their interviews, just really trying to pay attention to those things and really have blended in my mind, I guess.

CLARE BODEL: Thank you. Congratulations again. Thank you, everyone.