Tom Kim says switch Bob MacIntyre has made from Scotland to US is 'hard'

South Korean reckons it’s been easier for him to hit the ground running on links courses

Links lover Tom Kim reckons his transition from target-style US courses to Scottish seaside tests has been easier than the one Bob MacIntyre is trying to make the opposite way around.

Kim finished joint-third in his Genesis Scottish Open debut at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian two years ago before making the top ten again in the Rolex Series event at the same venue last summer.

The 21-year-old South Korean has been confirmed for a third straight appearance in the DP World Tour and PGA Tour co-sanctioned event and is already licking his lips about the test he’ll be facing on Scotland’s Golf Coast.

Tom Kim putts on the sixth green during the final round of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images.

For 2023 runner up MacIntyre, it will mark a welcome return to action on home soil after playing all of his competitive golf so far this year on the PGA Tour and freely admitting that it’s been a challenge adapting to US-style courses.

“To be honest, for me, it's just the different grasses,” said the Oban man, who has started his season as a full card holder by missing six cuts in 12 starts, in a media chat on Wednesday during which he also talked about his new working environment being a “lonely place” due to being new to it.

“People keep asking me at home, ‘well, why are you struggling, what's happening here, there and everywhere’. If you've got a simple chip back home in Europe, 95 percent of the time, it's not Bermuda. If you've got a straightforward chip out here and you're in a strong grain, I mean, it just changes the way you've got to play the shot.

“I changed my technique slightly to kind of try and help myself and give myself a bigger margin for error. It's just simple stuff like that. And then you've got a six-foot putt with the grain going the opposite way from the putt; how do you read that? I've done a year and a half of college but a year and a half is not as much as a lifetime for these guys.”

Tom Kim congratulates playing partner Rory McIlroy after the Northern Irishman finished birdie-birdie to win the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images.

Kim admitted it had been a “really good question” when he was asked on the back of what MacIntyre had to say if it was easier to go from the PGA Tour to the DP World Tour than the other way around, as MacIntyre and nine others have done this year after securing cards through the Race to Dubai for the first time.

“I do think it is harder to adapt from Scotland to the US because when I played in Scotland, there’s not much grain,” said the three-time PGA Tour winner and one of the game’s refreshing characters. “It’s more just grass, and you don’t have shots where when you hit, your club gets stuck in the ground or when you’re reading putts, there’s not much grain at all.

“And when you come to the US, there’s so many different grasses. You’ve got bentgrass. You’ve got ryegrass. You’ve got Bermuda. You’ve got zoysia. There’s four different types of grasses and there’s even more. And, when you’re adapting to that instead of just one grass, it definitely is harder.”

Echoing what MacIntyre had to say about missing what he described as a “big family feel” of the DP World Tour, Kim added in reference to playing golf in the US: “The lifestyle here, it’s all business. When I played on the Asian Tour or DP World Tour, there’s a lot of camraderie. Like people go out to dinner and stuff like that. But, here, you have your own team. You’re trying to compete out here.

“When I first came out here, I definitely saw a different type of golf and I think that’s what makes these guys so good because they are all so dedicated and focused to their craft. So I do really think that guys from the DP World Tour might play great there, but it is hard to adapt coming from there to the PGA Tour.”

Kim was in the final group for the closing circuit in last year’s Genesis Scottish Open, so got a ringside seat as Rory McIlroy finished birdie-birdie in a howling gale to land his first-ever success in the home of golf, pipping MacIntyre in the process after he’d produced a wonder shot at the 18th to sign off with a birdie for a sensational six-under-par 64.

“That was absurd in those conditions,” observed world No 23 Kim. “I think I was walking up 16 and I could see a leaderboard. I think I was one-under par that day and I felt like I was playing really well and I see six-under par, I’m like, this is ridiculous because that’s definitely one of the hardest conditions I’ve ever had to play on a golf course. Even putting, you’d have a right-to-lefter and the wind is blowing off the left. You cannot play this ball right-to-left. You just have to play the wind, and that’s never happened before. I’ve never done that.

“As tough as it was, it was a really good experience for me. That’s what helped me play well at The Open (he finished joint-second behind Brian Harman at Royal Liverpool the following week) because I played in such hard conditions at the Scottish Open, when I went to the British, it wasn’t blowing 40 miles an hour so it felt easy.”

McIlroy, who will be back to defend his title on 10-14 July, made his 2-3 finish look easy to deny MacIntyre becoming the first home player to land the title since Colin Montgomerie in 1999 at Loch Lomond, but it was the mark of a top player, as Kim admitted. “Playing with Rory on the last day, to see him finish it off in those conditions showed me as a player what it takes to be at his level, to have his wins and to have his career,” he declared, smiling.