Grace Kim felt in her element as she cracked jokes and passed on tips to some of Australia’s brightest young talents. And it may prove the secret to regaining her major winning best.
It is not so long ago the Sydneysider, who nine months ago clinched a maiden major title with a stunning success in the Evian Championship, was one of the fresh-faced kids receiving a tip or two from an Aussie great while dreaming of bigger things.
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The 25-year-old was a junior star and awesome amateur, but her path to professionalism was aided by Aussie legend Karrie Webb, whose scholarship she was awarded four times.
“I’ve always said (that) Karrie’s my biggest inspiration,” Kim told foxsports.com.au in a chat last week.
“The fact that she’s been able to give back (and) be so humble about giving back, even through her accolade and her achievements, is very inspiring. And that’s obviously what I’m starting to do now. I think it’s a pretty cool step forward.”
The Sydneysider, a stunning winner of the Evian Championship in France last year, believes being able to pass on some advice and help out Aussie juniors through a Ripper GC initiative could lead to even more success for Australian golfers.
By helping the Aussie juniors Kim, who will feature in the year’s second major at the Riviera Country Club this weekend, believes she is helping herself while noting that a distraction from the rigours of life on the road is a good thing.
“I do love kids and I think they just bring in such a youthful energy, and that probably inspires me as well, to just have fun with the game. It’s more so nice for my golf (because) it’s not all that serious,” she said.
“I think sometimes it’s hard because it is now my job, so I could be taking it a bit too seriously, and then that affects my golf in a not so good way, so it’s a real good reminder to just have fun with it and enjoy it along the way, especially where we get to travel the world and spend my week with some of the players (who are my) friends first. So I guess, yeah, they’re really good reminder.”
Major winner Grace Kim, pictured after her win in the Evian Championship last July in France, was back in Australia recently passing on her advice to the nation’s best junior talent.Source: Getty Images
Kim, who was only the second Australian woman to play the famous Augusta course when competing in the National Women’s Amateur, turned professional in late 2021 and this week’s US Open will mark her 17th major appearance.
Aside from the stunner in France, where she eagled the 18th to force a play-off against the exceptional Jeeno Thitkul – she jokes that she is responsible for at least half the hits on videos of her stunning shot – her best finish in a major came when 13th in the US Open three years ago.
The success in France brought with a five year exemption into the five majors featuring on the women’s tour, but it also bolstered Kim’s belief that she was capable of translating her stunning amateur deeds to the highest tiers of women’s golf.
“It changed, obviously my mindset, and going into the next five years that I’m exempt into, obviously I’ve now got the luxury to pick and choose my schedule,” she said.
“Hopefully (that will allow me to) be able to co-ordinate with my team (so) we can build development blocks to further improve, and in terms of winning a tournament, I’m never going to back down.
“I’m always just going to try and find ways to improve my game, and it also helps mentally knowing that I’ve got five years sorted and I don’t have to worry about keeping my card. There are probably just less worries.”
One astonishing shot at the right moment confirmed her status as a major winner for life, but she said it did not alter her personality. She still loves her mates and still loves to let rip with a joke or two.
Grace Kim is sprayed with champagne after her triumph in the Evian Championship last year.Source: Getty Images
That sense of humour? The stunner at the Evian is not the only footage of Kim that caught the eyes of the golf world.
It is a few years old now, but when she was an amateur, she and a mate Becky Kay had the good fortune of watching fellow Aussie star Hannah Green win her first major at the Hazeltine National in 2019.
The trick? Well, Kim and co did not mind making a fashion statement when watching from outside the ropes instead of being the one putting on the show while wearing yellow tutus, green tights and blue capes.
“I know that’s going to come out again very shortly since we’re going to Hazeltine soon,” she said.
“Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking. Clearly I just didn’t give a crap about what other people thought about us. We just wanted to make sure that people knew that we were there. And clearly everyone knew.
“The previous year we wore aprons that had, like, bikini photos and … a budgie smuggler of Aussie flags, and then the following year (we thought), ‘Oh, we’ve got to kind of try and top that’.
“I went over with the same girl (and we were) trying to figure out ways to pretty much just further embarrass ourselves, and then we ended up somehow with the green suit and the yellow tutu.”
The recent reset as part of Kim’s collaboration with Golf Australia and Ripper GC back in Australia also gave her the chance to finetune a couple of aspects of her game after a middling start to the season.
“Obviously (they are) not entirely the results I would have liked,” she said.
“Missing the first major cut was probably a big one but I think it’s almost like a blessing in disguise that I was able to get together with the coach the following week, which was an off week, and work on a few things that I kind of lacked during that first major.
“It got to a point where it was just … in my head that I wasn’t holding enough putts, which then translates over to my long game not being good enough, because I’m not hitting it close enough, and it just kept going.
“It was … more of a mental fight than anything, but we were able to figure out some patterns that I always kind of work on (and) I’m able to have a bit more of a guideline as to what I need to work on in terms of my technical game, and then hopefully we can correlate that over to, well, translate that over to the golf course at Riviera.”
Kim has played Riviera once courtesy of an invitation from a connection and is looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead.
“The rough was up that day, so that was quite nice to be able to have that major risk still,” she said.
“I remember it being not overly long, but I know USGA can obviously make it quite long. The greens were very nice. I mean, overall it was just like a typical American golf course setup.
“(It did not have) the major vibe just yet but it was really cool to see the iconic 18th green with the condos in the background and all that. So it was quite cool to be there.”