LAS VEGAS: Tom Kim now has something in common with Byron Nelson as the only players to have won the same PGA Tour event twice in the same season.
Kim successfully defended his title Sunday in the Shriners Children’s Open when he closed with a 5-under 66 to emerge from a pack of a dozen players who had a chance in the final hour.
Kim wound up winning by one shot over Adam Hadwin, who birded the final hole for a 67. Kim now has three PGA Tour titles in the last 15 months, at 21 the youngest player since Tiger Woods in 1997 to have three tour wins. “I really felt confident in myself,” Kim said. “I knew that if I did me I was going to be able to do it.
I’m stoked to get this one.” He won in Las Vegas a year ago, beating Patrick Cantlay in a playoff at the TPC Summerlin, when the Shiners Children’s Open was early in the season.