On the golf course, Michael Kim hasn’t found much success over the years. Joining the PGA Tour in 2016, he bagged his first title two years later by winning the 2018 John Deere Classic. But that was his only high on the Tour. Other than that, he has had one runner-up and a third-place finish to show in his 10-year career. However, Kim has been incredibly inconsistent with the club. But, he has certainly found his rhythm on the keyboard as he has become somewhat of a celebrity on X.

And sharing his most recent failure on the golf course, the 32-year-old expressed how disappointed he was with his performance at TPC Southwind with a tweet. Sitting at T67 on the leaderboard, Michael is 20 strokes away from the top of the leaderboard and has no shot at making a comeback. However, he was particularly frustrated with one particular hole in the third round that reflected just how bad his day went.

Kim wrote, “On hole 14 today, I hit a bad iron shot into the water. I took a drop and it rolled near the red hazard line. I thought it was clear of the red line but after the round a rules official showed me a video of my drop and it looked like the ball was on the line.” After missing his shot off the tee on the par-3 14th hole, he lost focus and didn’t check where his drop ball had landed. Had he done so, he would have only faced a 1-stroke penalty. However, things got worse due to his lack of awareness.

The 1-time PGA Tour champion added, “Any part of the ball can’t be on the line nor cross the vertical plane of the line like the first down or endzone.  I was still annoyed after my tee shot, I didn’t take my time to make sure I took a proper drop and I was penalized two shots for it. 🤦🏻‍♂️” Instead of a bogey, Kim ended up scoring a triple bogey on the 14th. While that wouldn’t have pushed him too far up the leaderboard, it’s still a mistake he could have easily avoided. Such mistakes have caused players like Lexi Thompson to lose major titles.

But Kim was also eager to put it behind him while also taking out the positive experience from it. He added, “Not my best moment and will use it as a learning experience. Luckily it’s not going to affect my standing for next week.” Losing 2 strokes would certainly be a huge wakeup call for the 32-year-old as he continues to search for his second PGA Tour title. He may have come close to winning one at the WM Phoenix Open earlier this season. Kim has also been quite consistent in 2025. Hopefully, he can learn from his mistakes at TPC Southwind and use them to get a win in the near future.

Having said that, Michael Kim did mention that the bad finish didn’t change his standing for next week’s BMW Championship. But will it affect his chances of qualifying for the final playoffs? Let’s find out!

Is Michael Kim qualified to play in the TOUR Championship 2025?

After the conclusion of the main season, Michael Kim has had 1 runner-up finish and 2 other top-10s this season. Overall, he has performed quite impressively throughout 2025. In fact, this is the first time he has played in the FedEx St Jude Championship since 2018. It took him 7 years to make it to the playoffs again, and this has been his best finish in the FedEx Cup standings in his entire PGA Tour career.

He’s ranked 36th in the rankings. That does mean that he is qualified for the St Jude Championship and the BMW Championship as well. However, Kim will need to get a top-10 finish at Caves Valley to book a ticket to East Lake. If he does manage to do so, then it will be the first time in his career that Michael Kim will play in the TOUR Championship. While he may have made some mistakes at TPC Southwind, he had better be prepared to have a flawless run at Maryland. If Kim can imitate his performance from the WM Phoenix Open from earlier this season, then there is no doubt that he would make it to the final playoffs this year.