Kim in tie for lead on Hero World Challenge opening day

By Rahul Banerji

Young Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim made an early impact at the Hero World Challenge, taking a share of the lead with fellow-debutant Sepp Straka at Albany on Thursday.

Also in the van on three under par 69 were close buddies Viktor Hovland, the defending champion, and Collin Morikawa, who have roomed together in the Bahamas the last two years.

Austria’s Straka was a late replacement for tournament host Tiger Woods at the Bahamas event while Panasonic Open India winner Kim was the only one of the leaders to go bogey-free.

Sam Burns, who was third last year, was sole fifth at 70, while Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood and Max Homa were tied sixth with rounds of 71 each, the event organisers said.

Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele carded even par 72s to be tied ninth.

Hovland, whose lone win in 2022 came on the DP World Tour in Dubai, has a chance to become the first player to win back-to-back at the event since Tiger Woods did so in 2007.

The Norwegian has never held or co-led after 18 holes on the PGA Tour and no player has won the Hero Challenge after leading or co-leading the HWC since the event moved to Albany in 2015.

A win would also make it a fourth straight European success at the HWC after Jon Rahm (2018), Henrik Stenson (2019), and Hovland in 2021.

Sharp work

Kim put on a short game display with pars on his first 10 holes before adding three birdies on his way back to the clubhouse.

Straka was not even in the field when the week began. He was due to play a friendly Ryder Cup-style game back home when the call came.

He said, “Yeah. I found out Monday around lunchtime. I was about to play some golf back in Birmingham, we’ve got like a little Ryder Cup-style event that we play just amongst the pros over there and that was supposed to be Tuesday-Wednesday of this week.

“We were about to tee off for a practice round and I got the call, so I had to change my schedule up.”

Straka is the only player to have never played in a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup at Albany.

Now 29^th in the world and a winner for the first time at the Honda Classic, Straka was the first Austrian to win on the PGA Tour.

PGA Tour rookie of the year Cameron Young shot a 71 and was among only eight players who broke par.

Also read: Tiger forced out of Hero World Challenge with injured foot