Tae Hoon Kim can’t stop winning Genesis cars
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Ace on No. 16 earned him his third in four months
Tae Hoon Kim’s incredible hole-in-one on No. 16 at the Genesis
LOS ANGELES – Sponsor invite Tae Hoon Kim has spectacularly won his third Genesis vehicle in just over four months thanks to a silky hole-in-one in the opening round of The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.
Kim made an ace on the par-3 16th hole at Riviera from 168 yards with a 7-iron which earned him a 2021 Genesis G80 during a rollercoaster 2-under 69 that left him in a tie for 19th place.
The 35-year-old Korean is in the field courtesy of winning the 2020 Genesis Championship on the Korean Tour last October – a result that also yielded a Genesis GV80 to go with the invitation to make his PGA TOUR debut.
The four-time Korean Tour winner also picked up a Genesis GV70 for leading the order of merit on the Korean Tour in 2020, making it three vehicles added to his garage in just over four months.
“I gave the first two cars to my parents but I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with this latest one,” Kim said through a translator after the round.
“I didn’t see the ball go in the hole but then I noticed some people up at the green celebrating and realized it went in. That was pretty special thing to happen in my first PGA TOUR event.”
Incredibly, it wasn’t even the first eagle of his round. Starting on the 10th hole Kim birdied from 10-feet before holing out a greenside bunker shot on the par-5 11th for an eagle – sending him to 3 under through just two holes.
The ace came after a bogey at the 14th but when he dropped in another birdie at the par-5 1st as he made the turn, Kim sat in second place on the leaderboard. Unfortunately, he was unable to maintain the run and dropped four shots in his next three holes before righting the ship somewhat with a birdie on his penultimate hole.
Kim is just the fourth player to make two eagles in the same round on the back nine at Riviera since 1983 joining Phil Mickelson (2017 final round, 10 & 17), Sergio Garcia (2012 final round, 11 & 15) and Scott McCarron (1997 round three, 10 & 11).
Kim earned a place in THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK earlier this season but chose not to partake when the venue moved from Korea to Las Vegas, instead choosing to chase the order of merit points back home that helped him to his second car.