Hyo Joo Kim has found her first streak of three top 10s in a row since her rookie season in 2015 entering the first major in golf this season. She finds herself at (-3) with an opening round 69 and is tied for the best score out of the morning wave.
Kim finished T5 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, T10 at the Bank of Hope Founder’s Cup, and T7 at the Kia Classic last week. Her last stretch of top 10s were at the same three events in 2015, with a T8 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, a victory at the then JTBC Founder’s Cup, and T6 at the Kia Classic.
The highlight of her recent stretch of strong play was a 62to finish off her performance at the Kia Classic, it vaulted her up the leaderboard from 30th before the final round to T5.
The 2014 Evian Championship winner has looked to her new-found belief in her game to continue her strong play, telling LPGA.com through a translator that, “That really elevated my confidence level, I want to be able to maintain that throughout the whole week.”
That elevated confidence level is guiding her as she rebounds from a missed cut at the ANA Inspiration last year. Today was the first time Kim broke 70 at the course since the third round in 2016, where she went on to finish T18.
With her recent stretch, she’s been able to adopt a new mantra in response to poor shots to push through her rounds, “Even when I do make mistakes and they come up, my confidence is taking me through and helping me get over that.”
The streaky player has found victory during her top 10 stretch runs. The last time she had four consecutive top ten finishes was 2014, where she only played in four LPGA events including the victory at the Evian Championship.
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