IF YOU want to know what pressure is all about then I suggest you ask three of the weekend’s winners - Adrian Meronk, Tom Kim and Austin Smotherman.
Let’s start with Meronk, now a six-time DP World Tour winner after his victory at the Dunhill Links Trophy.
A LIV golfer with a very uncertain future, Meronk had no status on the DP World Tour. If he wanted to play on the tour next year he would have had to return to qualifying school.
Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography
How much did it mean to him? He could barely speak afterwards as he fought back the tears.
His win at the Home of Golf has changed everything. It seems certain he is ready to jump ship from LIV but now he can plan a return to the DP World Tour.
Then there is Kim. A four-time winner on the PGA Tour, he has just captured what could be the biggest and most pressure-packed win of his career.
After playing in the Presidents Cup at Medinah, he boarded a plane to Japan for the Asian Games knowing that anything other than a win would mean that the South Korean would be drafted to complete the best part of two years of military service. A gold medal would mean that he could carry on with his career.
And with all of that on the line, Kim fired a six-under 64 in the final round to earn the individual gold medal for South Korea.
Thanks to the victory, Kim, who is 24, will now avoid the military service that is compulsory for all able-bodied males in the country. Such a lengthy interruption could have had devastating effects on his career.
A gold medal at the Asian Games is one of the few ways South Korean males can avoid military service. An exemption also exists for South Koreans who earn any medal in the Olympics, a feat Kim just missed out on achieving with a T8 at the 2024 Paris Games.
After his round, he said that he tried to keep the potential military exemption out of his mind during the final round.
"I tried not to think about it,” Kim said. “I just tried to play the best for my country. It’s a big stepping stone. I think the pressure that I felt this week, I’ll be able to implement it in my upcoming seasons.”
He made four birdies on the front nine at Kasugai Country Club’s East Course, then added another and an eagle on the back nine, holding on for a three-shot victory.
And finally there is Austin Smotherman, a 32-year-old journeyman whose pressure was of a rather different kind.
He had never won on the PGA Tour in 99 previous starts, missing a bucketload of cuts along the way. He played his way on to the PGA Tour in 2021 but initially struggled and had to return to the Korn Ferry Tour last year, where he won three times to make his way back to the big league.
And in his 100th start, at the Bank of Utah Championship, Smotherman bounced back from a double bogey at the par-4 13th with two birdies over his next three holes to secure his first win.
It was far from a perfect final round at Black Desert Resort for the 32-year-old. A bogey at the par-3 17th added to the drama but he smashed his tee shot at the last and tapped in for birdie to reach the winner’s circle at a course-record 26 under par.
He secured a cheque for $1m, a two-year PGA Tour exemption and invites to the Players Championship and the PGA Championship.
Three golfers, three very different sets of circumstances and three very different kinds of pressure. And when it mattered most, Meronk, Kim and Smotherman all found a way to deliver.
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