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PGA Championship: Tom Kim falls into marsh in opening round, gets absolutely covered in mud

Tom Kim emerged from the marsh at Oak Hill Country Club with his entire lower half covered in mud

ryan young
Staff writer
·2 min read
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Tom Kim actually hopped into the creek to take a “bath” of sorts in the middle of his round.
Tom Kim actually hopped into the creek to take a “bath” of sorts in the middle of his round. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Tom Kim took a bath in the river at Oak Hill Country Club on Thursday afternoon.

As wild as it sounds, that’s the situation Kim found himself in late during his opening round at the PGA Championship.

Kim hit his drive into the water — well, into the mud — on the par-4 No. 6. He waded through the weeds to look for his ball and came back out to the fairway absolutely covered in mud.

In Kim’s defense, it looked like he tried to mitigate the damage. He took off his shoes and rolled his pants up to his knees, but it doesn’t look like it did anything to help.

So, Kim walked back to the creek that went through the fairway and hopped right in.

Just watch:

“As soon as I went in, it was kind of sketch,” he said on ESPN. “But I mean, it’s a major championship. I’m fighting for every single stroke I have. And then it got dark. Once my foot got in, there’s no looking back. I went full in, it just got my shirt and everything. There was one point where I just sunk in. I was steady for a minute, I couldn’t get myself out.”

The "bath" actually worked out pretty well. Kim got most of the mud off of him, or as much as he could, though he finished the rest of the round with his pants rolled up.

“It couldn’t get any worse,” he said, laughing. “I was wet enough, so I thought I might as well just go into the water and wash myself off.”

And after all that, he still saved his bogey on the hole, which feels pretty good considering the circumstances.

Kim finished his round with a 3-over 73, and was well behind leader Eric Cole — who got to 5-under when play was suspended on Thursday night due to darkness.

In the end, Kim seemed pretty happy with the whole situation. Not only was he actually smiling when he pulled himself out of the mud, but he doubled over with laughter on ESPN while checking his phone after the round when he realized that everyone had seen what had happened to him.

Next time, just let the ball go.