11 Things You Didn't Know About Joo-Hyung Kim

11 Things You Didn't Know About Joo-Hyung Kim

1. Kim Joo-hyung was born 21st June 2002 in Seoul, South Korea.

2. Son of a professional golfer, Kim Chang-ik, who played on the Buy.com Tour, Joo-hyung was based in Australia, the Philippines and later, Thailand for a number of years.

3. He is fluent in Tagalog, English and Korean.

4. Before turning professional in 2018, Kim won the Philippine Junior Amateur, the Philippine Amateur Open Championship and the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Championship.

5. Turning professional in 2018, he played on the Philippine Golf Tour, before moving to the Asian Development Tour in 2019. In June, he claimed the PGM ADT Championship by six strokes and then went on to win the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in Indonesia in August and the Raya Pakistan Open by nine shots in October.

6. After his third win, he automatically qualified for the Asian Tour and carried on his impressive form, securing the Panasonic Open India, becoming, at 17 years and 149 days, the second youngest professional to win on the Asian Tour.

7. His father started Kim in the game of golf at the age of six, and he reportedly decided to become a pro at the age of 11 as he wanted to become like his hero Tiger Woods. In fact he once saw Woods play in Australia and the 15-time Major winner signed a cap for Kim.

8. In early 2020, he finished fourth in the SMBC Singapore Open. The event was part of the Open Qualifying Series and his high finish gave him an entry into the 2020 Open Championship, his first Major championship.

9. Kim didn’t even have his own set of customized golf clubs for the first time until after he signed a sponsorship deal with Titleist in December 2019.

10. His meteoric rise up the rankings continued, as in 2022 he claimed the Singapore International in a playoff. The following week, he recorded a runner-up finish at the SMBC Singapore Open. As a result of his run, he finished top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit at the age of just 19.

11. Kim, also goes by the name 'Tom'. The reason for this is because of Thomas the Tank Engine.