Tom Kim fired a final-round 64 to win the 2026 Scottish Open by two shots at 17 under, reviving his PGA Tour rise ahead of The Open at Royal Birkdale next week.
Tom Kim didn’t simply win the 2026 Scottish Open, he kicked down the door, reclaimed his place among golf’s brightest young stars and delivered a warning shot one week before The Open Championship.
The 24-year-old produced a brilliant final-round 64 at The Renaissance Club, finishing 17 under and beating Min Woo Lee by two strokes for the fourth PGA Tour victory of his career.
Not bad for a player who had quietly disappeared from the sport’s main stage.
Kim became an immediate attraction after winning three times during his first two professional seasons, combining fearless golf with an unmistakable personality.
The victories stopped coming, however, and golf’s never-ending hype machine quickly shifted toward its next young sensation.
Kim clearly wasn’t finished.
After placing third at the U.S. Open last month, he carried that momentum across the Atlantic and turned a demanding Sunday in Scotland into his personal comeback party.
Because fog disrupted Saturday’s schedule, Kim had to complete 29 holes on Sunday.
He finished his third round at 11 under, just one stroke behind leaders Lee, Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert MacIntyre, before attacking the final round from the group directly ahead of them.
They never caught him.
Kim made only one bogey over his final 51 holes and played the championship round without dropping a shot. His most important swings arrived on the difficult par-4 10th and 16th holes, where he produced two dramatically different 4-iron approaches from more than 200 yards.
At No. 10, Kim launched a high fade into the wind. At No. 16, he carved a lower draw through the conditions. Both shots created birdie opportunities on holes where simply making par would’ve satisfied most of the field.
The putter handled the rest.
Kim repeatedly converted uncomfortable par putts during the closing stretch, refusing to give Lee or anyone else an opening. His final test was a four-footer on the 18th green, which he buried while Lee watched from the fairway two shots behind.
The victory puts Kim in rare company. He’s now one of only five internationally born players to earn four PGA Tour victories before turning 25, joining Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama.
That’s not a list anyone stumbles onto by accident.
Lee closed with a respectable 67 to finish at 15 under, while Fitzpatrick and MacIntyre shared third at 13 under. McIlroy surged into a tie for seventh after shooting his own final-round 64, leaving him to wonder what might’ve happened without a damaging stretch in Saturday’s fog.
Scottie Scheffler had a much rougher visit to Scotland. The world’s top-ranked player missed the cut, ending a remarkable streak of 78 consecutive tournaments without an early exit.
Kim, meanwhile, leaves The Renaissance Club with a trophy, renewed confidence and four top-20 finishes in five career Scottish Open appearances.
For two years, the golf world treated him like yesterday’s story. On Sunday, Tom Kim made himself impossible to ignore.
