Seoul: Six South Korean players will tee off at the final major championship of the 2025 PGA Tour season this week in Northern Ireland, hoping to become the first from the country to win the oldest tournament in men's golf. The 153rd Open Championship will begin Thursday at Royal Portrush Golf Club, which will host the historic tournament for the third time.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean contingent this week will feature four regulars on the PGA Tour, Im Sung-jae, An Byeong-hun, Kim Si-woo, and Tom Kim. They will be joined by the senior tour member Choi Kyoung-ju, an eight-time PGA Tour winner who qualified for this week by capturing the Senior Open Championship last year, and Song Young-han, who earned an Open spot in June by tying for second at the Mizuno Open on the Japanese tour, part of the Open Qualifying Series.
No one in the PGA Tour quartet has won this year, but Im is having the best season so far in that group. He is the top South Korean in both the world rankings (25th) and the FedEx Cup standings (27th). Im did most of the heavy lifting early in the season, though. Over his past seven starts, Im has missed four cuts with no top-10 finish. Im was also gone after two rounds when Royal Portrush last hosted the Open Championship in 2019. Im tied for fifth at the Masters in April but failed to match that level of performance at the next two majors -- missing the cut at the PGA Championship in May and tying for 57th at the U.S. Open in June.
An, world No. 48, will make his 11th Open Championship appearance. He also played the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush and tied for 32nd place then. The 33-year-old is coming off a 79th-place finish at the Genesis Scottish Open last week, a performance that doesn't bode well for more links-style golf this week.
Tom Kim's career seems to have stalled this year at age 23. The three-time tour winner has missed a career-high seven cuts in 20 starts this year -- two more cuts than all of last year -- and has not been a factor in any of the first three majors this year. He ended 2024 ranked 21st in the world but is now No. 60. He tied for second at the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. This will be Kim's fourth Open appearance.
Kim Si-woo sneaked into the Open Championship as the first alternate after two-time champion Ernie Els withdrew. Ranked 63rd in the world, Kim will be playing at his seventh Open Championship. He has had two top-10 finishes this year, one of them coming at the PGA Championship.
Choi is back for his 16th Open Championship appearance after an 11-year absence. The 55-year-old's previous major appearance came at the 2016 PGA Championship. Song, a two-time winner in Japan, will be playing at his third Open Championship.