Tom Kim reacts to video of him falling in mud at PGA Championship
If you didn’t know who Tom Kim was when you woke up Thursday, you probably do now. The PGA Tour golfer went viral quickly after he fell into the mud during the opening round of the PGA Championship.
In the moment, he didn’t realize the cameras were rolling. Not only did they capture everything, but as he got off the course — and dried off — he learned he went viral.
The reaction, much like the moment he fell in, was priceless.
Kim was attempting to get his ball on the sixth hole when he went to get his ball, which he said he could still see. If he had a good lie, he could’ve hit the shot. However, he knew right away it might not be as easy as he thought.
“As soon as I went in, it was kind of sketch,” Kim told ESPN’s Michael Eaves after the round. “But I was like, ‘It’s a major championship. I’m fighting for every single stroke I have.’ And then, it got dark. Once my foot got in, I was like, ‘There’s no looking back.’ And I went full in, and just got my shirt and everything. There’s one point where I just sunk in. I was steady. For a minute, I couldn’t get I couldn’t get myself out.
“So I called Joe [Skavron] and he was saying, ‘Well, if I go in, I sink. Both of aren’t getting out.’ So I had t crawl, I had to use every part of my body to get out. I’ve had better days.”
It didn’t stop there, though. Kim decided to rinse himself off after getting caught in the mud, so he went back in to the creek. His attitude?
“I mean, it couldn’t get any worse,” he joked. “I was wet enough, so I thought I might as well just go in the water and wash myself off. And that’s exactly what I did. My shirt got bad. I don’t have a shirt underneath my jacket.”
Kim ended up finishing 3-over for the day and tied for 63rd place in the field. He still had three more holes left after that sixth-hole adventure — he started on the back nine — but he finished strong to stay six shots back of the leader.
While he admitted the day could’ve gone better, he reiterated his stance that every shot is important in a major.
“I hope everyone at home understands it’s a major championship, and I’m trying to play the best that I can and every shot matters,” Kim said. “So I definitely went full-in, but it didn’t really help I didn’t find my ball and went through all that. It was a great experience.”