McKINNEY, Texas – Amateur Kris Kim’s goal this week at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson was to make the cut and for 30 holes he executed that plan perfectly. That all changed on No. 13 Friday.
The 16-year-old’s drive at the par-4 13th hole found a bunker and he was forced to lay up, leading to a bogey that dropped him to 6 under for the week and on the cut line.
“We checked out [the leaderboard] on 15, the par 3. Yeah, I knew I was playing well enough [to make the cut],” Kim said.
With an impressive calm, Kim played his last five holes in 1 under with a birdie at No. 18 to advance to the weekend and become the youngest player to make the cut on the PGA Tour since Kyle Suppa at the 2015 Sony Open.
Kim is an accomplished amateur from England who is playing this week’s event at TPC Craig Ranch on a sponsor exemption with a simple goal: “Just make the cut, to be honest. I knew something around this number [7 under] would be good enough, but to shoot it, I’m pretty happy,” he said.
In 2010, Dallas native Jordan Spieth made the cut at this event when he was about two months older than Kim.