It was pro-am day at the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Course, everyone in that liminal state somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the horn blew. With play done for the day, the soaked players scrambled for shelter in the clubhouse.

Tom Kim, another force of nature and the first player since Tiger Woods to win twice on the PGA TOUR before turning 21, sat in the middle of it all on a plush couch in front of a World Cup game he wasn’t really watching. (His beloved South Korea would play later.) He’d been asked what it’s like to be a super-rookie –Trevor Immelman, the International Team’s captain at the recent Presidents Cup, has called him the next global superstar – and whether he gets teased.

“Those guys give me such a hard time,” Kim said, smiling and shaking his head at the players 10, 20 and even 30 years his senior, many of whom he grew up watching on TV. “It’s hard to say what they do specifically, because they change it up a lot.”

A wet towel came flying in, chucked by Shane Lowry, and landed in Kim’s lap.

“Just like that!” Kim said. “That’s a perfect example!”

All of which is to say that everybody loves Joohyung “Tom” Kim, named for his childhood fascination with Thomas the Tank Engine, and one of the most exciting young players to rumble up the tracks in years. Converts include even Rory McIlroy, who played a nine-hole practice round with Kim at the BMW Championship, watched the Presidents Cup on TV and relished being paired with him at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina in October. McIlroy won to return to world No. 1, Kim tied for 11th, and they shared a hug afterward. Game recognize game.

Converts also include Immelman, who understandably loves the player who was the heartbeat of his team, and Lowry, who showed his affection with locker room hijinks at the Hero.

“I played with Tom in Hong Kong in January 2020, an Asian Tour event, I was 32 or 33 at the time,” Lowry said. “I remember walking down one hole and I said to him, ‘How old are you?’ And he was like, ‘Seventeen.’ I was like, ‘Oh, for f— sake.’ (Laughs) I thought he was good then and obviously he’s kicked this year and he’s done some great things.”

Kim was impressive at the Wyndham Championship in August. He made a quadruple-bogey on his first hole of the tournament but still won by five thanks to a final-round 61 (including an incredible 27 on Sunday’s opening nine that was one off the TOUR’s nine-hole scoring record).

He was mesmerizing as he blistered a 240-yard 2-iron and rolled in the earth-shaking birdie putt to keep hope alive for the International Team at the Presidents Cup in September. And he was humble after making not a bogey for the week and outlasting Patrick Cantlay at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas in October.

The youth, the talent, the googly Presidents Cup glasses – Kim has it all, a gift from the Golf Gods that seems to have fallen out of the sky fully formed. He will be among the headliners at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions.