On Friday afternoon, after Si Woo Kim carded a (somehow disappointing) 60, the best quote came from his playing partner.
“It’s always fun to watch Si Woo do his thing,” Scottie Scheffler said, an idea he detailed a moment earlier: “I felt like I was hitting all my shots to 15, 20 feet and Si Woo was hitting all his shots to like 8 feet or closer.”
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Scheffler and Kim are Dallas pals and were rightfully grouped together during the first two rounds of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, held in Dallas. The vibes were great but, as tends to happen at golf tournaments, the friendly vibes are about to change. Entering the final round, Scheffler and Kim will play together again … in Sunday’s final pairing. Kim will start with a two-shot lead.
Beating Scottie Scheffler on any day is difficult, as Kim knows very well. He plays practice rounds with Scheffler on occasion. But to beat him over 72 holes is what puzzles every pro golfer these days. The longer the race, the more time for Scheffler to hang around and elevate, the closer to the top of the leaderboard he gets. Saturday was a nice reminder.
Kim was beating him by five when the day began, but after taking his foot off the gas during Saturday’s front nine, he found himself tied with the game’s best player by the time he reached the 13th hole. An in-form Scheffler is simply inevitable.
Kim’s caddie had stepped in to tell his player he was rushing and he needed to calm down. That’ll happen on a birdies-everywhere golf course. But it’ll happen even more when the Scheffler is a name listed on the leaderboard. The way Kim was thinking post-round, at least he’ll now be able to keep track of Scheffler up close.
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Andrew Catalon and the CBS broadcast crew were quick to point out that it could be an oddly comfy pairing for Kim, given his friendship with Scheffler. But we’ve seen comfy pairings head the wrong direction, too, where both players slip down the leaderboard together. That doesn’t feel likely to happen, and chances are if Kim beats Scheffler on Sunday, he’ll win the tournament. But to pay so much attention to your playing partner can only create a bit of a blind spot to the others racing around one of the easiest golf courses they’ll face all season long.
Wyndham Clark has found form this week and is tied with Scheffler, two back. A handful of others sit at 17 under, four back. They’ll all play a bunch of gettable holes before Kim even reaches the 1st tee. Even though he admitted he wanted Scheffler in his pairing, Kim seems to understand that tomorrow will be a shootout either way.
“This course is definitely not a protecting course,” he said Saturday night. “I still going to have to shoot six to nine under for a win, especially with Scottie. I’m just going to play same attitude as the first two days and try to make birdies where I can and then stay aggressive, and we’ll see.”
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