Seonghyeon Kim takes 54-hole lead with back-nine 29 at Lake Charles Championship

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana – In his seventh Korn Ferry Tour start, Seonghyeon Kim moved to the top of the leaderboard Saturday at the inaugural Lake Charles Championship, as he took the outright 54-hole lead with a 7-under 64 at The Country Club at Golden Nugget. Kim reached 15-under par for the week and moved one stroke ahead of George Cunningham, one of four co-leaders after the second round.

Kim entered the third round one stroke off the 36-hole lead, but recorded the best back nine of the week, a 6-under 29, en route to his first lead in a Korn Ferry Tour event.

The 23-year-old from Changwon, South Korea carded eight birdies and one bogey in his third round. Kim opened with a birdie at the drivable par-4 first and added another at the par-4 fourth. A bogey at the par-4 seventh was entirely washed away by six birdies on the back nine. Kim made five birdies in his first six holes on the back (Nos. 10, 11, 12, 14, 15) and finished the day with a tight approach into the par-4 18th green for a closing birdie.

“The front nine did not go as well as I planned,” Kim said. “I struggled a little bit. But as I turned to the back nine, I gained some confidence. The putts started to drop, I got into a good rhythm, which ended up in a good score. I’m satisfied with my round today.”

Since turning professional in 2017, Kim predominantly played the Korean Tour and Japan Golf Tour as he worked his way toward the Korn Ferry Tour.

Kim won the 2020 KPGA Championship, becoming the first player in the history of the Korean Tour to win an event as a Monday Qualifier. The victory awarded him a five-year exemption for the Korean Tour, as well as an exemption for his PGA TOUR debut at the 2020 CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. The following July, Kim won the 2021 Japan PGA Championship on the Japan Golf Tour. Three months later, Kim shot a 9-under 63 in the second round of the 2021 CJ CUP @ SUMMIT and entered the weekend in T2 position; he finished the week T32. With an eye toward the PGA TOUR, Kim made his way to Final Stage of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament last November and birdied his 71st hole for a T39 finish – which was the cut line for guaranteed starts in the first eight events of the 2022 season.

“Ever since I started golf, as with many other players, my ultimate goal was to reach the PGA TOUR one day,” Kim said. “My dream has always been the PGA TOUR and I knew I had to come through the Korn Ferry Tour and succeed here in order to get that.”

Through six events this year, Kim played his way into contention on two previous occasions, finishing T2 at last month’s LECOM Suncoast Classic, and solo third in January’s The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club. With three top-25s, Kim entered the week ranked No. 8 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List and No. 178 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I’ve always tried to stay composed,” Kim said. “Being a Tour player, I always come here to win. There are a lot of tournaments left in the season, and I’m confident a chance will come to me. I’m just going to keep grinding.”

Final-round tee times will run from 9:15 a.m. through 11:25 a.m. local time off the first and 10th tees.