HONOLULU — Si Woo Kim had been fighting back all day from a 3-shot deficit at the Sony Open, and when he finally got in touch Sunday afternoon, it got tougher.
His 7-iron to the par-3 17th stuck on a firm green and a firm green. Behind, Hayden Buckley can feel the joy as he birdies the 16th hole to regain the lead.
Suddenly a hard chip became easy.
“There’s nothing to lose,” Kim said.
Kim won the Sony Open with a 236-yard par putt from 30 feet to tie Buckley. putt birdie from 40 feet and 6-under 64.
Buckley missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 closing hole, forcing the playoff.
The finish brought the sleepy Sony Open to life and gave the 27-year-old Kim his fourth career PGA Tour victory and his first in two years.
Buckley, who started the final round with a 2-shot lead, had nine of the 16 major players entering Sunday never win on the PGA Tour. He played his part except for a couple of short putts he missed on the back nine. It closed at 68.
“It’s the hardest thing to do on the PGA Tour, and sometimes you get hit,” Buckley said. “And I feel like that’s what happened today.”
Kim opened with three straight birdies to get back into the mix, and stayed there all day as other contenders came and went.
The tipping point came on the 17th. And as much pressure as Kim felt on the shot, Buckley’s 15-foot birdie putt and response seemed to calm him down.
“If it’s equal, I’m more worried because I have to save [par], and especially with the pressure into the grain, it worries me more, said Kim. “But I knew it. I heard the voices.”
Behind him he felt a bullet, a bird or a breast.
“Bogey is fine,” he said. “So I have to hit hard. I think that will help a lot.”
He made the first pump when he got down for birdie, a big moment, but it wasn’t enough to match what he did at the Presidents Cup when partner Tom Kim made a big putt to win the four-shot match.
“If I was playing with him, I would definitely do that,” Kim said with a laugh. “But this one more stroke and he (Buckley) is still behind me. I wanted it, but I just calmed down.”
Kim, who got married in South Korea a month ago, finished at 18-under 262 and confirmed that he will be in contention for next year’s Sony Open and Kapalua Sentry Tournament of Champions in two weeks in Hawaii.
More immediately, the win would guarantee him a spot in the Masters.
Buckley, who once shot a 61 at a college event in Kauai, convinced he would try golf for a living, had a big year when he finished 14th at the FedEx Cup with only 70s reaching the postseason.
He was in reasonable shape off the tee on the par-5 closing hole, but his approach from the right fairway was flat and out to the right, leaving a steep pitch to the right of the pin. It rolled about 12 feet, and the birdie narrowly missed forcing a playoff.
Buckley made nine straight pars after opening with a birdie, and then had a six-shot stretch on the back nine with one par, two bogeys and three birdies. His two bogeys came on 5-foot and 4-foot pars, and he failed to birdie both 5s.
“I feel like I made a lot of those long putts, but I struggled on the short ones. That was from Thursday,” Buckley said. “That really got to me at the end. I felt like I was in control the whole way, but missing 3 or 4 feet late on the 15th really hurt.
“Overall I was impressed with what I did, and I remember this day and I think it will make me better.”
Chris Kirk shot a 68 to finish alone in third.
It was the second straight week in Hawaii that someone rallied from at least 3 shots behind to win, even though Jon Rahm wasn’t as impressive as he came to play Collin Morikawa at Kapalua with 6 under par through 9 holes.
“It can always happen as quickly as last week,” Kim said. “I tried my best. The last four holes were a little shaky.”
He missed the green on the 17th, and he missed the fairway on the 18th, two difficult spots to find birdies. Kim meets them and walks away victorious.
