Michael Kim Uncovers the Hidden World of PGA Tour Life

Michael Kim joins Claire Rogers on this episode of the Scoop!

Michael Kim, Cal Golden Bear and PGA Tour winner, has become a fan favorite not just for his performance on the course, but for his candid Twitter recaps of life as a professional golfer. GOLF’s Claire Rogers sits down with Kim to uncover what sparked his passion for the game, what it was like growing up near the iconic Torrey Pines, the biggest lessons he’s learned throughout his career, and much more.

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So, you have 137,000 followers. All right. So, you are going to kind of give me the scoop on the inside life of a PJ tour player here. Okay. Getting paid. Mhm. Do you think any PJ tour player does their own taxes? I would hope not. Playing a top course for fun. Obviously, we can’t just call up Augusta National. The vibes in player dining. Is it kind of like a high school cafeteria where you can you there’s certain spots that you sit? Switching coaches. Switching coaches. That’s uh that’s that can be complicated. Michael Kim, welcome to the scoop. Thanks for having me, Claire. We went with vanilla. Your second choice. Vanilla is great. Vanilla is great. Share what your first choice was, though. My first choice was key lime pie. U but you know, I’m a simple guy. I like vanilla, too. I will have to try that at some point because I have to say I’ve never never had that ice cream. But I wanted to start off and ask how you fell in love with golf. How I fell in love? Well, I’m my family immigrated over to the to San Diego area here um in year 2000 and my dad thought it would be a cool thing to try as a as a group, as our family. And um now I’m the last man standing. I’m the only golfer left. um everyone else has basically quit. Um but uh you know just one thing led to another. I I started playing a couple tournaments here and there and I wanted to um I wanted to be a little a bit better than than I was playing and all of a sudden I’m I’m here on the PJ tour talking to you. Full circle kind of. You made it. I have made it. I have made it. Um we’re at Tory Pines this week. You went to Tory Pines High School. So, you must know this area very well. What is your earliest golf memory of this place? I think in 200 maybe two or three um Tiger came to play obviously um and he um made Eagle on the what used to be old 18 on Touring North. Came with a buddy of mine to watch and uh there’s ton of people and um he made Eagle. we all went crazy and that that’s one of my first few memories. Um, another memory I actually came to watch um farmers, not just Tiger, but other other guys and um Aaron Badley threw me a golf ball. Um, I think it must have been one of his first few years out here. And I I mentioned to him um that he threw me a golf ball when I was like 13 or 14 years old. And he kind of laughed and said uh yeah, that uh shows how old old he is now. But uh those are those are some of the memories I have here. So we talked to your college roommate or college teammate and uh fellow Twitter pro Max and I said what should we ask him about the college days and his first one which you already guessed was Korean 101. What’s the story of this class that you took? Yeah. So, um I was born in Korea, so I am fairly fluent in Korean. And because of our um college golf schedule, we had to be done by 12:30. And there’s there’s a lot of classes at Cal, but there’s a limited amount that you can take before before 12:30. And one of the classes available was Korean. And I wanted to I wanted to take the advanced class, but a lot of the advanced ones were like 3 4 pm. I I couldn’t take those. But the beginner one ones were at 10:00 a.m. So I was like, “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t want to take a class too hard.” So I went to Korean 101 and I realized um I realized it’s a little easier than than the level that I was at. Uh but you know I I faked it around a little bit in the beginning but the professor kind of figured figured me out pretty quickly but um she was cool about it. She understood and uh let me let me take the class for for a full year. Would you sometime like at the beginning would you get a couple answers wrong or something just to not let her know? Basically like you know she’d give me something to read and I would kind of read it really slow and um for the homework you actually would record yourself talk and this is how Max found out. Um I would we would we would always room together at tournaments and I would tell Max, “Hey, I have to record something for my Korean class so can you be quiet for like 30 seconds?” And he’s like, “Yeah, yeah, no problem.” And I would read, you know, I’d say this. You know, if I would say the scoop normally, I’d be say the scoop, but I’d be like, “The scoop.” And he started laughing. He goes, “What are you doing?” I was like, “I’m recording this and I can’t be too fluent in it.” And so he got a he got a big kick out of that. The second thing he wanted me to ask has to do with chocolate cake. Does that ring any bells? Chocolate cake? Oh, yeah. I mean that. Yeah, we um my freshman year, my first weighin, I weighed like 130 pounds or something like that. And so we were um Max and I started working out together um after my freshman year. And um and we we were I was we I was trying to gain as much weight as I as we possibly could or as I possibly could. He said he would like bring you to the dining hall and feed me. That’s what he That’s right. We would we would go we would we had like a routine our my freshman fall or or spring we’d um go work out um at the at our facility. We’d um go to um the cafeteria and then we’d eat a bunch of whatever we could find and I’m sure chocolate cake was in there. That’s great. So you have 137,000 followers on Twitterx. How did you even get into posting on that? Um, well, again, ma Max kind of enters the the the view. Um, I played So, Max and I are careers kind of misaligned in a way when when I was playing well, he wasn’t playing very well. And when I was starting to play bad, he was starting to play well. And so, you I obviously knew about his Twitter and and how big it had gotten. and but I hadn’t really played with him during tour events to like really see how how big it had gotten with with fans and and his reach. And after I got my card back um in 22, I played with him at Safeway uh first two rounds. That’s when I was like really surprised at how many people came and and was there to watch him. Yeah. Um, and so, you know, that was a big like aha moment, like, okay, maybe I should start doing something. Um, and I’m a nicer guy than Max, so I don’t just roast people. I try to help other people. But, um, I thought I could kind of through my ups and downs and and my golf career, I felt like I had a better understanding of the golf game. Um, definitely more so than amateur. So, I thought um could be a cool way to um put my name out there a bit more and um I didn’t know um what I wanted to get out of it, but I thought it could be could be a fun thing to do and um it’s it’s been great so far. So, you post these awesome weekly recaps, the one from just this past week, like paragraphs. Um do you are you taking notes during the week and saying, “Okay, I want to remember to talk about this.” Or how does that work? Um yeah, I um usually usually like Sunday night I’ll I’ll write up something, but if there’s something I I definitely want to um remember, I’ll um I I have a bunch of things in my draft portion, then I’ll writing stuff things in here and there. And um yeah, but usually most of it’s done kind of Sunday night and then I’ll post it on Monday. Awesome. All right. So, you are going to kind of give me the scoop on the inside life of a PJ tour player here. Okay. You’ve done this awesome job of kind of explaining how things work. So, even if it’s not from your own point of view, just how players how it all works. So, the first one would be courtesy cars. What’s the deal there? Courtesy cars is like the one of the nicest perks we get as a as a tour pro. Um, usually we fly in like this week here at Tory Pines, I we flew from uh we flew from Phoenix down to um San Diego. Um I got a text with a volunteer text me, hey, I’m right outside baggage claim. Um let me know when you get your bags. So, as soon as I got my bags, I walked outside, found someone in the Genesis logo and I signed a couple paperworks and um he hands me the key and I drive off. It’s I don’t have to mess with um any any rental car or or or anything like that. It’s it’s truly one of the best perks for sure. And then what about bringing it back? Like we’re going to have to bring our rental to the hotel or pick it up, whatever, drop it off. How does that work? Um, a lot of times they have drop off locations right next to the baggage claim again at the airport. Um, other times, um, they ask that we bring the car to the golf course and then they’ll give us a ride from the golf course to the airport or wherever you’re going. Um, so yeah, it’s uh, even the drop off is is easier. Getting paid. How does that work? It’s um I don’t I I assume it’s this for most everyone. Um I think they just said they’re not doing um checks anymore. Um but most everyone just gets a a wire transfer Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning um right into your bank account and um that’s it. Do you think any PJ Tour player does their own taxes? I would hope not. It’s really complicated. Um like we pay taxes on the earnings we want in the state that we played in. So, last week I would pay Arizona taxes on on however much I made last week. So, it’s really complicated. I would hope I would hope no. Sounds like a nightmare. Um, booking flights. Booking flights. Um, pretty simple. I I have a manager that helps me out and she’ll send me options here and there, but it’s just easier for me to go up on Google flights and find the one I want and I I take a screenshot and I message her to um to book the flight or um I’ll just call there. There’s a PJ tour travel phone number that I can call and there’s travel agents that helps us book flights as well. And then on the back end of that, if you’re like, so on a normal week, are pros not even booking their flight home or to the next spot or do they wait for Friday and then Sunday? Are people changing flights all the time? I think we all we all book flights on Sunday, like whatever the last flight if it seems manageable, like 6:00 p.m. If we can go home, fantastic. Um, and then if you miss the cut, then we’re changing flights. Usually as soon as we’re done with the tournament, we want to get to the next spot as soon as possible. Um, but if you miss a flight, miss a cut, maybe you can go home for a couple days, relax, practice a little bit, and then head to next week. Um, but I think most people have flights booked Sunday night to wherever wherever they’re going next. Got it. Playing a top course for fun. How does that work? Um, it dep it depends. Like obviously we can’t just call up Augusta National whenever we want. Um but a lot of courses are pretty understanding if we if we call and we ask for the head pro or the director of golf and um like hey we’re in town for the farmers this week or or the Genesis this week. Um do you think we could get around in if you’re not too busy? And a lot of a lot of them are very generous and say yes. the vibes in play or dining. Is it kind of like a high school cafeteria where you can you there’s certain spots that you sit or how does that work? Um there’s certain groups that people tend to eat with each other, you know. Yeah, it’s just like high school. You you you find your group of friends. Um sometimes it’s really busy, so you end up sitting with a guy you’ve haven’t you don’t really know, but you know, you could uh get to know them. or if you’re there’s usually enough space if you just kind of want to be by yourself and grab a quick bite to eat and go, then that’s totally fine, too. Switching coaches. Switching coaches, that’s uh that’s that can be complicated. Um, you know, your coach in a lot of ways is your is your closest confidant and you know, it’s golf, but at times it feels like you’re just going to battle together. Yeah. And and you know, for me, I I tend to when I pick a coach that I that I that I enjoy working with, that we’ve worked well together, I tend to keep that relationship going for a while, and it can be like the toughest thing in the world to call him or it’s like a breakup. Yeah. It’s legitimately like a breakup. And you know, it’s this person you you feel like you went to battle with. you have all these past memories, you know, like a breakup and but you know, if you feel like you you really need a change, then you know, usually the the coach have kind of has kind of done this for a while, too. So, you understand that, you know, it’s time to go your separate ways, but uh you know, some sometimes people get back together. So, uh so it just depends. But it’s it’s just one of those things where it’s uh it’s a really tough conversation to have sometimes. Finding a caddy. Finding a caddy. Again, kind of like a like a breakup with like with like um with your your significant other. Um you know, some there’s actually used to be a few guys that had a rotation um but that’s pretty rare these days. Um like a West Coast caddy or kind. Yeah, basically like they would um a player didn’t want like a a caddy for like you know three four weeks in a row. So they would just do you know two weeks on then he’d bring another guy two weeks on. Um keep it fresh. Keep it fresh. Uh but he was also a player that that didn’t um rely on his caddy very much. she just wanted someone, you know, to talk to and and he would he would do all the numbers and he would know what how to how to play the golf course. Um but Caddyy, you know, he’s the only guy only person you can really rely on um when you’re playing the tournament. So, obviously it can be tense at times and you know, each caddy player caddy relationship is a little different. You get ones that are that are truly like truly like best friends and they they they stay together at the same room, they eat together at dinner together. Um and then there’s a bit more like business-like where you um just meet at the golf course and then once you’re done, you’re done. Um, but once you change your caddy, then depending on how good you are playing, as soon as you tell the caddy world that that you’re a free agent, you usually get a few text messages saying, “Hey, um, I heard about the breakup.” Um, I am available to Caddy for you if if if you are interested. And and um, usually usually you kind of have an idea of who you want to reach out to. Um, once you decide that you’re going to get a new caddy, why do you think you have such a unique outlook? Cuz your Twitter is unlike anybody else’s on the PGA Tour. You give insights that maybe people don’t even pick up on. Why do you think that’s such a strength of yours? Um, I think when I first decided to do the the do the Twitter thing, um, I didn’t want to be the guy, the standard like athlete tweet like, “I’m happy to be here. Looking for a great week.” Like, “See you out there, fans.” And I I I knew that that I didn’t want to do that. and you know with with like podcasts or or um or stuff like this with you Claire on In the Scoop like I feel like people wanted more inside the ropes access stuff and um and you know just thinking what what my friends would want to hear about what they’re interested about um I fig I figured that would be a good start and that’s kind of what I think why people like um my tweets is because I try to give as much access without giving you know personal information. Definitely. I ask everybody this at the end but then we’ll still do our rapid fire. But a low moment of your career, a high moment in something you’ve learned. A low moment. Oh man, I could go for a while about my low Carrington did. Um low moment I think. So, what I have two that I really remember. One, my low moment was at RSM um maybe maybe four or five years ago. This is kind of like at the deep darkest cave I found myself in that I’ve dug under myself in and I missed the cut. Not uh not not only did I was was I playing bad, but I hit a ball under a tree root. I hurt my wrist. Um, it ended up not being like too serious of a thing, but um, I ended up losing my PJ tour status that um, that year and I just I wasn’t I didn’t know I felt like I didn’t know where I was going to go from there. Um, you know, I was going I was probably going to have to sign up for Q school, which I didn’t have to at the end, but um, you thought you might have to? I thought I had to. um you know, even if I go to Q school in a few months, like I don’t know how well I’m gonna play and am I really do I really want to keep playing until until um playing like the mini tour stuff? I didn’t really want to do that. Um, and then it ended up working out obviously, but um, then my second low point is actually like three months after that, uh, four months after that, I that’s when I decided to see Shawn Foley, my coach right now, who’s really helped me kind of piece it back together. And, you know, it was the very first cornfairy tour event. Um, and you know, in practice it felt good. And leading up I felt like I was seeing some signs that I was playing well. And after like the first six holes, um, it was it was okay. It was pretty good. And then all of a sudden, like the golf ball was going all over again. And it’s it’s it’s kind of like the hope and then like another crash that that really that really hit hard. And you know, it was kind of one of those like, man, like this is kind of like my last chance at the year. Um, and if if I keep continuing down this bad path, like am I going to have to give up the game or something like that? Um but then I realized during my second round I realized my driver had cracked and I and I had been playing with it um for that entire that entire week. And so that’s in my mind um those first six holes that I was doing okay, I think the driver was fine and then maybe on like the sixth hole it cracked and and um that was that was truly kind of my lowest point. And then from that point on, I changed driver head and I and I was I found my way way back from there. That was probably the lowest point. Um and then and then the highest point is um probably the John Deere in 2018. Um by won by what? I won by eight. Um yeah, I won by eight. That’s Yeah, I don’t I don’t know how that happened, but um I played great. Um played the British Open next very next week. Um it was it was um it’s kind of a bit of a blur now. Um can’t believe it’s been almost seven years. How’d you celebrate? It’s crazy. Not not much. I was so tired. Um it’s a it’s a long hot week. Um I was just stressed out of my mind. I was getting like three four hours of sleep every day. Um but um you we took a charter ride from John Deere to Carni and um because I won they had champagne. Uh they opened a bottle of champagne which was really cool and I think I had like one glass and I just passed out for for the entire flight. Are those charter flights like it’s just packed with PJ tour players? It’s it’s all tour players, caddies, um some limited uh family members. Okay. Um and um even PJ tour reps in there. Yeah. And then something that you’ve learned. Something that I’ve learned um something that I’ve learned. I think it’s mostly about like you know golf we think of I golf pro golfers think of think of golf as this almost when we’re playing the tournament it feels like a life and death. scenario like if I don’t hit this fairway, you know, my life is gonna be over or if I miss this putt, you know, it’s kind of the end of it. But, you know, you realize that if you have a good support system, you know, family, friends, um it’s almost they see a better version of yourself of you than than you think of yourself at the end of it. And those are kind of the the most important things. and and golf is is important to me for sure, but at the end of the day, I I see more I see it more as a as a passion and but more of a job, too. So, you know, at the end of the day, I’ve people that care for me and love me and I love them back and that’s that’s really the most important thing at the end of it all. Definitely. Okay, our final segment here, Brain Freeze, presented by Penguin. 10 rapid fire questions. Your top artist that you listen to. top artist. I I promise you probably haven’t gotten this. It’s probably a guy named Gragon. It’s a Korean guy. All right, we’ll have to look him up. Very famous in Asia, but uh not in probably not as much as in USA. Okay. Part of your game that needs the most work right now. Putting, which is ironic because I when I was in college, I was an amazing putter and that was kind of what I what I um hung my hat on, but putting right now. Okay. Best show to binge watch. Best show to binge watch. Um, the give me one second. Um, Land Man. Oh, what’s that? I think I think it’s called Land Man. I’m sorry. I I don’t know the names of anything. I forget. I forget. Um, I watched a few and it was really good. Okay. Lowest round and where? Lowest round. I shot 61 at a course called Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. Um SAM Cup. They had it there. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Um the head pro at the time, um I was on my way to shoot 59. Um but he heard that I was playing well and on like the 15th hole there, this is par five, I was going for it in two and he got so excited. He’s driving the cart over on from the left and I was as I was like hitting my second shot, I saw his cart and I pulled it into the water and and and made bogey instead of birdie. If I had birdie, I would have shot 59. So I always give him crap about that. Favorite movie? Um, the Dark Knight. Course you haven’t played but want to? Cypress Point. Last pro golfer you texted? Max, actually. Best shot you’ve hit in a tournament? Best shot I’ve hit in a tournament. Um oh um a few years back in 20 in 2021 um on the fifth hole here at Tory Pine South. I was in the right bunker. The pin was tucked middle right. I hit like a five iron. It was just a prayer to hit it on the green and it went in and I made the cut on the number on that Friday. Yeah. Last book you read? Last book I read? Um, it’s one of Sean Foley’s books. I I forget. Um, the name. It was like kind of a serious book, so I I had It was kind of like homework, so I don’t remember. He’s a genius, though, isn’t he? Um, don’t don’t let him. His head is big enough as is. So, um, I wish I could tell you. Um, the last golf book I read was um, Golf Beneath the Surface by Raymond Prior. Nice. And finally, your favorite player to be paired with? Um, Seu, Kim. All right. He’s a blast. Awesome. Michael, thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank [Applause] you. Here at the scoop, we have two golden rules. One, you need to have good ice cream. Two, you need to have a good outfit. And that’s why I’m wearing Penguin. I’ve got the jacket, the sweater, and even a pair of pants. So, we’re ready to go.