TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 23, 2024

Tom Kim

TPC River Highlands

Quick Quotes

Q. Tom, you went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 player in the world. You made a huge putt in regulation with some crazy stuff going on. Give us your thoughts on the day.

TOM KIM: Yeah, I fought hard. I really did. I played really good this week. Unfortunately two bogeys that I had this week came from two 3-putts. The elite level for you to win out here, it's very, very small and I'm not going to look back at this playoff and be like, man, you know, I screwed up. No, I played really good. Just to force a playoff, I felt like it was really good to get there, and I wish I would have had a bit more of a chance on 13 and a little wind switch, and hitting that kind of shot hurts, but I'm taking this as a huge leap in the season.

Q. How would you and analyze this week all in all? Trying to go wire-to-wire is hard on the PGA TOUR.

TOM KIM: Yeah, I was really close, really, really close, but I was just a shot short. Unfortunately, when you're going against Scottie, who I know very, very well, I knew that today I had to play really good golf and I felt like I did. It got tough out there with the wind, but I fought hard. It was just shy, but I'm taking some positive things going into the rest of the season.

Q. The second shot into the 72nd hole, did you think that was in on the fly? It was close, within an inch or so.

TOM KIM: Yeah, I thought it was a little closer than 10, 12 feet. I thought it was, like, a tap-in. But I'm sure that it would have spun back. I didn't know how it looked, but I thought it was a tap-in. But just to give myself that putt, I was kind of pumped up and it was kind of cool to make it.

Q. They changed the hole location for the playoff. Did that mess you up a little bit, trying to pick a club there?

TOM KIM: No, not really. Again, like, on the 72nd hole, I got a little -- it was a tough number, but because of how strong the wind was, I just had to smash a wedge and the wind stayed up and it was good and it was just -- kind of the same thing happened in the playoff hole. It was just the same kind of similar, I needed to smash another wedge and the wind died as soon as I hit it and when the wind dies and you don't hit it perfect, it's going to be short and I got penalized by leaving it in the bunker in a deep plug.

Q. Great tournament, next week nine weeks in a row, you're the new iron horse of the PGA TOUR and you're only 22.

TOM KIM: Yeah, I'm going to try to take some positives this week and I think if -- with a win this week it would have definitely made next week a little easier, but I'm going to go right back at it and try to win, not try to win, just go out and next week and really give myself a chance and together a good game plan.