DOW CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2024

Grace Kim

Auston Kim

Midland Country Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: I'm here with Grace and Auston Kim. Just talk a little bit about the day you had out there today and playing together.

AUSTON KIM: It started off pretty slow. We made a couple of mistakes the first six holes, but we managed to lock in, have some fun with it. Made a long putt, and Grace made eagle today, so that was phenomenal. It was really cool.

We had a good day out there. It was a lot of fun grace grace like she said, it was a bit of a slow start. I think obviously playing in the foursomes format is definitely different to your normal game. I think we both know each of our games very well, and sticking to the process was one thing and making sure it wasn't going to deteriorate our minds mentally, so yeah, like she said, we locked in and made a few birdies, and yeah, we finished up very well. Happy with the finish.

Q. What was your strategy today? I've heard from a few people not saying sorry, other things like that. Anything you stuck with?

GRACE KIM: That's one thing, we didn't say sorry. We were probably like -- it was right on the tip of our tongues. But yeah, definitely didn't say sorry. We had a bit of a ball difference, so I use a Srixon ball, she uses a Titleist, but we made sure we switched, so if she was hitting into the greens, I would tee off with her ball and vice versa. So that was one strategy.

AUSTON KIM: Then I teed off on evens and Grace teed off on odds, so it just maximized our chances. I feel like we left each other really good numbers all day today, and Grace was stuffing them really close today, so all we needed to do was make a couple of putts, and it worked out great.

Q. What about tomorrow? A lot more aggressive strategy with the two chances at birdie?

AUSTON KIM: Yeah, we haven't discussed it yet.

GRACE KIM: We haven't gotten that far.

AUSTON KIM: Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

Q. Talk about your team name, walk-up song, how that came about, and this partnership, too, how it came about, you two partnering together.

GRACE KIM: The name was probably the hardest. Obviously anyone that we asked said Kim Squared, and we thought it was a little bit lame. We went through a few different names but ended up with 2K because two Kims. Are you born in 2000?

AUSTON KIM: Yeah.

GRACE KIM: That's it there. We're 2000 babies. Then I guess 2K -- I thought just money, so yeah, walk-up song is "Money, Money, Money" by Abba. That's that.

Q. How did you guys decide to partner together? Was there a story or anything like that?

AUSTON KIM: Well, we've seen each other since last year or two years ago on the Epson Tour and Grace got her card first and I got my card last year, so it's been cool to kind of play alongside one another. Grace asked me about playing this tournament. I hadn't even thought about playing Dow at all. I was very gracious --

GRACE KIM: Put her on the spot, really.

AUSTON KIM: It was very nice of her to ask me, and I very graciously accepted, and I'm glad that I did because already it's been a lot of fun playing together.