"Drive for show, putt for dough," the old golf adage goes. But this year, Kim Si-woo, 31, of CJ, is hitting the jackpot with his driver. Leveraging highly accurate tee shots, Kim has earned $3,971,938 (about 5.9 billion won) in 11 tournaments this season. That figure is already approaching the $4,184,686 (about 6.2 billion won) he earned across 30 events last year. What changed between last year and this year? An analysis of his data this season reveals why he is enjoying a "second prime."
According to the PGA Tour on Tuesday, Kim has recorded three top-five finishes and five top-10s in 11 events this season. That marks a clear improvement over last year, when he had three top-10 finishes including one top-five.
The secret behind his transformation is the "flawless accuracy" of his tee shots. His average driving distance is nearly unchanged, at 297.4 yards last year and 297.8 yards this year, but his accuracy is in a completely different league. His fairway hit rate, which stood at 66.79% (20th) last year, has risen to 71.75% this season — No. 1 on the entire tour. The rate of tee shots drifting into the right rough has also fallen sharply, from 13.39% to 10.04%. With improved accuracy, his Strokes Gained: Off the Tee has nearly doubled, jumping from 0.343 last year to 0.605 this year. Strokes Gained measures how well a player performs compared to the tour average, with the tour average set at 0. The higher the number above zero, the better the result.
His iron play numbers are equally striking. Strokes Gained: Approach to Green, the benchmark for iron shot accuracy, soared from 0.425 last year to 0.817 this year, ranking fourth on the tour. His greens in regulation (GIR) rate also climbed sharply, from 66.67% (104th) to 69.19% (21st). Notably, his proximity to the hole — the average distance to the cup from his approach shots — has shrunk from 36 feet 9 inches (about 11.2 meters) last year to 33 feet 3 inches (about 10.13 meters) this year, leading the entire tour. That means among the world-class players currently competing on the PGA Tour, Kim is the one who places his iron shots closest to the hole.
Speaking about this year's changes, Kim said, "Overall, my shot feel has become more stable, and the swings in my ball-striking have decreased compared to before." He added, "For the driver, I focus my practice on direction and rhythm, and for the irons, on distance control and consistency." He continued, "I think steadily checking the basics and focusing on maintaining my routine is what's leading to the good results."
The final piece of the puzzle for Kim is putting. His Strokes Gained: Putting has improved from -0.367 last year to -0.227 this year, but it still falls short of the tour average. The structure is one where he gives back on the greens what he gains with his shots. With his key metrics — from tee shots to iron play to proximity to the hole — all improving, his fifth career victory looks to be only a matter of time if his putting catches up.
The stage for Kim's bid for a fifth career win is the Cadillac Championship, which begins Tuesday (local time) and runs for four days at the Trump National Doral Blue Monster Course (par 72) in Miami, Florida. With a total purse of $20 million, the event is a newly established tournament designated as a signature event on the tour this season.
Golf tours are filled with fascinating data. "Data Golf" is a column that uses a variety of statistics and records to unpack the stories of golf in an accessible and engaging way. If readers have data they are curious about or topics they would like to see covered, please feel free to send them by email at any time.
