FRISCO, Texas — Epson Tour graduate Auston Kim would classify herself as a “yapper” on the golf course, as she’s one to talk to her ball when things start to get tough.

It’s a method the 24-year-old uses to help her mentally reset when a shot flies a little errantly or she doesn’t get a friendly bounce, and Kim had to employ that strategy several times on Thursday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas.

It’s the second time that a major tournament has been contested at this venue, which opened in 2023, and the facility bared its teeth in the opening round of the third major championship of the 2025 LPGA Tour season as the 156-player field’s scoring average totaled a whopping 75.577 strokes, nearly 3.6 shots over par.

Kim managed to remain relatively unscathed by the beast of a golf course on day one at PGA Frisco, carding a 1-under 71 after making four bogeys and five birdies, two of which came back-to-back on holes nine and 10. Every one of those birdies was certainly a highlight for Kim during a difficult 18 holes of golf, one in which the Epson Tour winner had to fight incredibly hard not to be discouraged by the missteps she made throughout the first day of her second appearance in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“If you're standing right by me, I'm saying a lot of things to my golf ball. I talk it out,” Kim explained. “I say what I want to say about the shot, and then I feel like that helps me accept what's just happened. There was a lot of yapping today. I feel like if I talk it out and let those emotions through me, it gives me a chance to get through it, and I feel more prepared for the next one. I think acceptance is key for me. Like any sports psych will say, feel the emotions and try to accept the outcome and make the next shot better.”

The Floridian is in her second year as an LPGA Tour member, having earned status after winning the 2023 Epson Tour Championship, a victory that vaulted her inside the top five on the Epson Tour Official Money List that year and secured Kim membership for the 2024 LPGA season. She had a solid rookie campaign, making 20 cuts in 27 starts, collecting three top-10 results and finishing 63rd in the season-long Race to the CME Globe, three spots shy of qualifying for her first year-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

This season has seen more of the same from Kim, who has played the weekend in 10 of the 12 events in which she has competed, earning one top-10 finish at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion in Ivins, Utah. In terms of the 2025 majors, Kim made the cut at both The Chevron Championship in April and the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills, tying for 44th and tying for 31st, respectively, a pair of pretty solid performances, particularly considering her young tenure as an LPGA Tour athlete.

But Kim still would very much like to improve upon those results at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, something that she has put herself in a good position to do through round one at Fields Ranch East if she can only continue to withstand the intense Texas temperatures and keep her tee shots in the short grass over the next 54 holes.

“I think the most difficult thing is dealing with the heat,” Kim said. “There were times I had to lock in really hard just because the heat is taking a toll on you. You want to get into a daze, and it's hard to focus. But the heat was probably the hardest part, and then hitting the fairways. I had to chop it out of the rough twice today, including on the last hole. I thought I was going to make double for sure, but I managed to make a really good bogey.”

Kim is currently in a logjam of a tie for seventh, sitting three shots behind 18-hole leader Jeeno Thitikul at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, already squarely in the mix in her 13th tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season. She has never finished better than T30 in a major championship, doing so at the 2024 Chevron Championship, but Kim has a good chance to record a new personal best if she manages to hang on physically and mentally over the next three days.

And it’s the latter of which that the 24-year-old is placing a pretty high premium on this week in Texas, knowing that if she can hang mentally tough and be around the top of the leaderboard come Sunday’s final round, she should have an opportunity to contend for her first major and LPGA Tour victory. Kim learned a lot from watching J.J. Spaun’s triumph at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club last week and is applying some of those lessons to the challenge she is facing at Fields Ranch East in just her second start ever in this major tournament.

“I know I'm in the nascent stages of my pro career, but I'm learning a lot, definitely gaining a lot of experience and confidence,” Kim said. “I'm also working really hard on my mental game, and there were a couple of times where I got really upset today, but I was able to reset and try to make the next shot as best as possible, better than the last one. So, just a matter of staying in it.

“I watch a ton of men's golf, and like J.J. Spaun said last week after he won, you don't have to do anything spectacular. You don't have to hit superhero shots. You just have to stay in it. I feel like that's such good advice for a course as hard as this one this week.”

Epson Tour Winner Auston Kim Cards 71 to Kick Off KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

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