Adam Svensson could only watch as his TPC Twin Cities course record fell to one of the most dominant rounds of the PGA Tour season. Michael Kim opened the tournament with a 2-under 69 on Thursday to finish tied for 53rd. However, he made history on Friday, shooting an incredible 12 birdies for a 12-under 59 and jumping 42 spots to No. 1 on the leaderboard. But despite becoming just the 15th player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59, Kim remained unfazed when he met with the media.

“Going to have some lunch,” Kim said when asked how he would prepare for the weekend after the round. “I don’t hit that many golf balls after rounds, and if I do, it’s probably because I played pretty poorly, but today I think I’m going to go out there, hit a few balls just to kind of wind down a little bit. Today was an awesome day, but still, I’m only halfway there, so [I] still need to kind of get focused up for the weekend.”

Friday was indeed awesome. Kim drained eight putts from 10 or more feet away from the hole. His final putt of the round was perhaps the most dramatic, as he drained a 24-foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole. And he did all this without making even a single bogey. With that, he joined a small group of players on the PGA Tour to have scored a sub-60 in a single round, becoming only the 15th to have done so. 

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“I’m one of 15, I guess, or the 15th guy to shoot 59,” he added. “I kind of remember thinking on 18 that you have to go for it. 60 or 61 doesn’t really make too much of a difference. To shoot 59 today was pretty cool and feels like I’m part of the history books, which is great.”

However, he fell one shot short of Jim Furyk, who scored an unbelievable 58 in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship. Meanwhile, the tournament’s lowest score in a single round was previously held by Adam Svensson, who shot a 60 last year at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. Other than that, Kim also broke the record for the lowest score in a single round on the PGA Tour this season. 

Blades Brown, Wyndham Clark, Si Woo Kim, Andrew Putnam, and Scottie Scheffler had previously held the record with rounds of 60. In any case, Michael Kim is not taking his performance for granted and revealed the mentality he will take with him. 

“I think it will be important for me to not compare myself tomorrow to today’s round,” Kim said about the mindset he will carry into Round 3. “Even if I get off to a poor start or just an OK start, to not be so disappointed that I’m not playing as well as I did today. We still have a long way to go.”

He indeed has a long way to go, especially since he failed to make the cut at three consecutive tournaments: the John Deere Classic, the Genesis Scottish Open, and The Open Championship. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel proud of the round he put together on Friday. 

“To be able to make some putts, and the putts that I made on 17 and 18 [are] what I get most from PGA TOUR golf, from golf in general, so really proud of that. But then again, I still have 36 to go,” he said. 

Moving Day kicks off on Saturday, and fans will be eagerly watching what Michael Kim will do in the $8.8 million purse tournament.