PGA Tour star Tom Kim has been forced to apologize after allowing his frustrations to boil over at the weekend.
The 22-year-old suffered heartbreak Sunday when he narrowly lost the DP World Tour’s Genesis Championship in a playoff to fellow South Korean Byeong Hun An.
It marked the second playoff defeat of the year for Kim, who seemingly took his anger out on the locker room at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, South Korea.
The rising golf star reportedly broke a locker room door in frustration with a photo showing the front of the clubhouse cubby completely off its hinges.
The South Korean player took to his Instagram account to issue an apology for his locker room behavior.
PGA Tour star Tom Kim apologized after reports claimed he damaged his locker
🚨😬🇰🇷 #PHOTO — After losing the Genesis Championship in a playoff yesterday, frustrations boiled over for Tim Kim, breaking a locker room door. Kim apologized to the KPGA and has offered to pay for the damage but disciplinary action is also being considered, per @YonhapNews pic.twitter.com/nJvQVQLgX4
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) October 28, 2024
Saying he wanted the information about the incident to come directly from him, Kim shared that he had already addressed the issue with the KPGA and the DP World Tour, apologizing to both and offering to pay for the damages.
‘After the loss I was frustrated, yes, absolutely,’ Kim said in the statement. ‘[B]ut I can assure you with absolute truth that I had no intent of damaging any part of the locker, not a single bit.
‘I addressed it with the [DP World Tour] and the KPGA right after the incident saying that the door came off. We had to fully pull it out due to safety reasons. I also let them know that I was willing to pay all expenses for the damage.’
‘I am grateful to everyone that’s reached out with messages of support, but to them and everyone else that I may have let down, I apologize with all my heart,’ Kim added.
There had been reports that Kim could face disciplinary action from the Korea Professional Golfers’ Association over the incident. However, he said that after his apology and explanation ‘the matter was considered closed.’ He seemingly did not believe he would be sanctioned.
Kim’s manager, Ben Harrison, insisted to Golf.com that neither he nor his client had been informed of any potential discipline.
‘He’s been portrayed as someone that smashed up a locker and basically stormed out like a baby,’ Harrison told the outlet.
The 22-year-old lost the DP World Tour’s Genesis Championship in a playoff to Byeong Hun An
The 22-year-old reacts to missing a putt on the 18th green during Sunday’s final round
‘That’s not what he did. He broke the locker because he opened it too — he didn’t take a club and smash it up. He literally held the handle of the locker, opened it super-aggressively and it broke a hinge.’
Kim lost in a playoff Sunday where on the par-5 18th he hit his third shot into a grandstand and made bogey. An followed that up by making another birdie for the win.
It marked the second time in the space of a month that Kim has had to issue a public apology.
Last month at the Presidents Cup in Montreal, Kim apologized to US captain Jim Furyk and Xander Schauffele after Kim told reporters that unidentified members of the US team were ‘cursing at us’ during their foursomes match in which he joined partner Si Woo Kim against Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
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PGA Tour star Tom Kim apologizes over ‘breaking locker door’ after Genesis Championship loss in Korea
