Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Joohyung Kim, a promising 20-year-old golfer from South Korea, received a special temporary membership from the PGA Tour for the remainder of the season Monday.
The special status means Kim is now eligible for an unlimited number of sponsor exemptions into PGA Tour events so he can attempt to earn his tour card for next season.
Kim is ranked No. 40 in the Official World Golf Ranking Monday after reaching a personal high of No. 39 last week. He made the cut in his debuts at both the U.S. Open and The Open Championship, and the week before The Open, he finished third at the Genesis Scottish Open.
Kim has picked up four victories across the Asian Tour and Korean Tour since 2019.
“I’ve worked really hard to get to this point, and now I have more work ahead of me to earn full PGA Tour status for 2023,” Kim said in a news release. “It has always been a dream of mine to play the PGA Tour and I am very grateful to 3M for giving me this opportunity to compete.”
According to the PGA Tour, to earn full status for next season Kim must earn at least as many “non-member FedEx Cup points” as the final eligible player to qualify for this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Kim will play this week’s 3M Open in Blaine, Minn., on a sponsor exemption.
He is the youngest player to be awarded special temporary member status since Chilean Joaquin Niemann in 2017-18, when he was 19.
–Field Level Media