Tom Kim had not won on the PGA Tour in 1,001 days. He fixed that Sunday at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, shooting a bogey-free 6-under 64 in the final round of the Genesis Scottish Open to finish at 17-under 263 and win by two strokes over Min Woo Lee.
The 24-year-old South Korean won his first three PGA Tour titles before his 22nd birthday and looked like he might become one of the sport's dominant players.
Then the wins stopped. He fell outside the world's top 150. The drought lasted nearly three years. "I played as good as I could down the stretch with pressure, and I executed when I needed to," he said after rolling in the final putt. "I'm very proud of myself for being calm out there."
The Scottish Open is the tournament that launched Kim's PGA Tour rise when he finished runner-up there in 2022 before winning later that season.
Returning to it for his fourth PGA Tour title, after the longest win drought of his career, carries an obvious resonance that did not go unnoticed.
The win also earns Kim a spot at The Masters next April and qualifies him for The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next week, where he will arrive with genuine momentum for the first time in years.
He hit 15 of 17 greens in regulation Sunday. He made no bogeys.
He found the last putt and told himself he had hit the same one in practice a thousand times.
He had. He holed it.