Si Woo Kim Wins 2017 Players Championship
Talk about underdog or long shot, Korean’s 21-year-old Si-Woo Kim became the youngest player to win the prestigious event. The youngest Championship winner prior to Kim had been Australia’s Adam Scott. None of the experts (or golf gurus) saw that one coming.
The 44th Players Championship was held May 11–14 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florid. Winner S. W. Kim follows in the footsteps of fellow countrymen K. J. Choi and Y. A. Yang. Choi won The Players in 2011, while Y. A. Yang won the 2009 PGA Championship by taking Tiger down for the first time after leading after 54 holes. Kim won by 3 strokes and securing that victory certainly put him on top of the golfing world for the moment at least.
This was Kim’s 2nd victory on the PGA tour. His first came last year during the Windham Championship of 2016. England’s Ian Poulter and South Africa’s Louis Oosthsien finished tied for 2nd. Spain’s Cabrera Bello finished with a flash of brilliance on the last 3 holes to nail down a tie for 4th place. Si-Woo Kim earned a lot of respect and admiration from his peers and the golfing public in general.
Golf writer John Perry takes in the view at The Players Championship.
With his win Si Woo Kim takes home a cool $1.89 million in prize money. That winning share is nearly $2 million out of a $10.5 million total purse. For The Players Championship to be the sport’s unofficial fifth major, that’s a relatively massive load of cabbage (money) to walk away with.
For this year, the $10.5 million Players purse remained unchanged from a year ago, when it was $500,000 above the four majors. The Masters soared to $11 million this year, and the U.S. Open is on its way up to a record $12 million in June. So The Players Championship has gone from its perch at the very top of the sport.
Even so, this tournament his very much secured itself as the No. 5 tournament on the schedule. It’s a popular and huge event, not just because of the money up for grabs but because of its tradition and location at TPC Sawgrass, a famous course with a famous hole that every golf fan knows.
The winner also gets 600 points toward the FedExCup and a five-year PGA TOUR exemption. So, winning has great perks here, too.
Three players have won THE PLAYERS while ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking: Greg Norman (1994), Tiger Woods (2001 and 2013) and Jason Day (2016).
Golf is a great test of true champions. The game ain’t rigged and it shows no favorites–unlike so many other sports. In golf, you can be the youngest in the field, the oldest, the tallest, the shortest, White, Black, Latino, Asian, or Other. Golf has no favorites. If you don’t play or perform well that week you don’t get paid. No free ride. Golf don’t pay to be mediocre. No sitting on the bench, or sidelines, collecting millions of dollars for being a spectator during competition. In golf, you earn your keep, plain and simple. That’s what makes this sport so competitive and attractive. This week at The Players Si-Woo Kim was the best of the best. Hats off to him and mucho congratulations.
John-Perry_150—John Perry, reporting for AAGD.
John Perry is a freelance writer, poet and active golfer with a passion for calling shots like he sees them and, then, telling it like it is. He resides in Orlando, FL
