This weekend is the third of four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, the Compliance Solutions Championship at The Patriot Golf Club in Owasso, Okla. The top 60 players on the KFT points list after Sunday’s final round advance to the next week’s KFT Championship, and the top 20 after that event earn PGA Tour cards for 2027. Needless to say, there’s high-stakes golf being waged.
Yet it’s a bit difficult to take things that seriously when seeing the scores shot in Oklahoma. Saturday’s third round highlighted the madness. The low round of the day came from Japan’s Yuta Sugiura, who shot a 12-under 58, the fourth sub-59 round in KFT history. He did it with 11 birdies, an eagle and … gulp … a bogey. Impressive stuff, and we should be giving the 2025 Japan Tour rookie of the year his flowers. But he wasn’t the only one to threaten a score in the 50s. William Sides lipped out a birdie try for 59 on his last hole. His 60 was the same number shot by Ross Steelman. Trent Philips, Carson Young and Robby Shelton posted 61s. By day’s end the scoring average settled in at a KFT-record 66.57.
Yes, it was a par-70 course and the round was played under preferred lies. And yes, the Korn Ferry Tour course set-ups are such that low scores are the rule. Everybody who plays on the tour understands this from the jump. But does that make it right, particularly at the end of the season, when so much is on the line? I join my colleague Tod Leonard in asking this question he posed yesterday: Is this really the “test” you want in your tour’s penultimate event?
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Motivation wasn’t ever going to be the issue for Tom Kim at the Asian Games. Becoming exempt from mandatory military service by winning a gold medal was plenty for 24-year-old South Korean. But what helped Kim handle the pressure of not losing his final-round lead in Japan was something more: inspiration. And that came in the form of a text message from none other than Tiger Woods. Kim has become friends with the 15-time major winner as a teammate on Jupiter Links Golf Club in the TGL. After Kim won the Genesis Scottish Open in July for his first victory since October 2023, Woods sent a congratulatory text. And Kim revealed that the night before the final round of the Asian Games, Woods again shot him a message: “Just be you. Nothing more, nothing less.” Kim came through with a final-round 66 to claim the gold by three shots. Kim seemed to downplay the importance of the win at first, but his relief has become evident in the aftermath. “I feel like I have been unloading things off my shoulders all season, like taking water buckets out of my bag,” Kim said. “I think I can finally get a good night’s sleep now.”
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It had been exactly 1,078 days since Adrian Meronk won on the DP World Tour. He ended that streak in grand fashion by shooting a final-round 68 at the Old Course in St. Andrews to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by two shots. “It’s unreal to be honest,” said the 33-year-old from Poland, speaking through tears. “I never usually cry but this one feels special. I’m sorry, I’m just lost for words. It’s been quite a tough year for me and to win here after 10 years since turning pro, it’s a dream come true.”
There’s a lot in that comment from Meronk.
Yes, he turned pro exactly a decade ago and made his debut at this event in Scotland. Regarding it being a tough year, he finished all the way down in 45th place in LIV Golf individual standings (he jumped to the league in 2024) and in 12 events his best finish was a tie for 21st place in May in Virginia. He played for the Cleeks team and continued to wear its hat and pullover while doing a television interview about his victory.
Since the LIV Golf season ended, Meronk had played in five DP World Tour events before this week, collecting two top-15s. His 20-under-par total was two better than Niklas Norgaard and Casey Jarvis. Tommy Fleetwood tied for fourth place and Brooks Koepka tied for sixth.
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In the debut episode of The Real Deal, host Bob Philion sat down with Greg Norman to talk about the business decisions that turned one of golf’s biggest stars into one of the sport’s earliest athlete-entrepreneurs. Norman explains why he wanted to own his brand rather than simply endorse others, from building the Great White Shark logo and Greg Norman Collection to taking an equity stake in Cobra Golf that ultimately became worth tens of millions. He also discusses the value of athlete intellectual property, the business lessons that shaped his career and how those same ideas influenced his vision for LIV Golf. Listen to the episode.
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