Grace Kim on the greatest grandstand finish in golf

Eagle, birdie, eagle to win a major. Sydneysider Grace Kim battled burnout and doubt, but found clarity in the mantra ‘don’t worry’ — and delivered when it mattered most.

Grace Kim after winning the Amundi Evian Championship Picture: Getty Images

Grace Kim was worried. She was worried about her worrying. She worried the worrying was behind her worrying results at the majors. Then she went eagle, birdie, eagle to win the Evian Championship like a shooting star across the elegant vista of the French Alps in perhaps the most thrilling grandstand finish in the history of good walks spoiled. No worries.

“I was a bit too excited to even cry or anything,” Kim laughs in her most in-depth interview since her triumph. “I was just so shocked. The last putt dropped and I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’ Massive disbelief. I said to someone I hugged, ‘What just happened?’ I couldn’t comprehend it. Obviously, the way I did it was wild. Crazy. Unbelievable. It’s sunk in but I also forget that I’ve done it. I can’t remember how I did it. I’ll be honest with you. I have to re-watch the video to acknowledge to myself that it really happened.”

Grace Kim plays her third shot during the first round of the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links Golf Course Picture: Getty Images

Eagle at the 72nd hole to gatecrash a playoff against Thailand’s world No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul. No worries. Birdie on the first playoff hole after slogging her approach into the drink but making amends with a bonkers chip-in for birdie. Not a worry in the big, wide beautiful world. Eagle on the second playoff hole for the warm, engaging, friendly, thoughtful, cheerful, 24-year-old Sydneysider Kim, a wonderful interviewee ahead of next week’s Women’s British Open, to land her first major championship at just her fifth attempt. No wuckas.

“It’s pretty cutthroat out here,” she says. “One week you don’t swing it well, or another week you don’t have the right thoughts flowing in your mind, or another week you don’t make the cut and your preparation has come to nothing again. You don’t always realise at the time that it’s part of the journey you’re on. In the moment, on those down days, it can be really hard to accept you might still be moving in the right direction. You just don’t see it. You think you’re in a massive slump and you’ve hit rock bottom and you’ll never get out of it. I’ve had a lot of those days. I had a tough time.”

How so? “I was playing a lot of events and giving myself the opportunity to get into the biggest events, but I just wasn’t performing the way I wanted to,” she says. “I felt like I was doing the right things without seeing results. That’s frustrating in any walk of life. I was losing motivation, to be honest with you. It definitely felt like a bit of burnout at the end of last year and going into the start of this year. But when you have a great team and the right people around you, it’s a lot easier to go through it together. They keep you in check, they help you re-set different goals and help you look at your battles in different ways.”

Such as? “One thing I changed that eased my mind before the Evian was the mental part,” Kim says. “I told myself if I had any bit of worry in my mind, it meant I was doubting my preparation and all the work I put in. Did I trust that work or not? If I did, why should I be worried about anything? And so I tried really hard to simply not worry for those four days.”

It worked! Eagle, birdie, eagle. Shooting star. Major winner.

Grace Kim plays the extraordinary chip that kept her alive in the play-off of the Evian Championship Picture: AP

“You tell yourself to stop worrying but then it’s easier said than done,” she says. “Golf gives you a few things to worry about. But I think it was a good train of thought because it translates to trusting yourself, to encouraging yourself, to backing yourself, to being fully committed to what you’re trying to achieve. To doing your best to rid yourself of doubts, to have no fear and have no hesitancy. ‘Don’t worry’ equals a pretty good mindset. It frees you up. ‘Don’t worry’ seems like a pretty good thought to take into a golf tournament and life.”

Eagle, birdie, eagle. Astonishing. It was ever so slightly overshadowed by a couple of fellow monster yarns on the same day. Australia’s Test cricketers skittled West Indies for 27 and Scott Boland took a hat-trick and Mitchell Starc took five-for-not-many-at-all; Jannik Sinner beat Carlos ­Alcaraz in an enchanting Wimbledon final. I didn’t write a word about Kim … but I should have. Eagle, birdie, eagle to win a major was the finest yarn of the lot.

Trailing by four strokes with four holes to play at the ravishing Evian Resort Golf Course, down among the dead women on the 15th tee, too far back, she actually went birdie, birdie, par, eagle, birdie, eagle to lift the real trophy before taking a replica to the pub. Seven-under for your last six holes to win a major. In 165 years of golf’s most famous fixtures, there had never been a finish like it.

Grip it, rip it, send it!

Send it! That’s what golf fans shout in the most urgent moments. Don’t just hit the ball, madames and monsieurs. Grip it, rip it, send it! Kim’s defining strokes were her four-hybrid to the 455-yard 18th green to set up a tap-in eagle. Send it! The madcap chip-in when all seemed lost on the first playoff hole. Send it! Another creamy, dreamy four-hybrid followed by the surreal, sublime winning putt on the second playoff hole. Send all of it!

You wouldn’t have believed it if it wasn’t broadcast on Kayo.

Talk us through it, champ.

“Gladly,” she purrs.

Grace Kim of Australia is sprayed with champagne by fellow major winners Minjee Lee, left, and Hannah Green after holing an eagle putt on the second play-off hole at the Evian Championship Picture: Getty Images

Your second shot to the 18th green. “I had the four-hybrid in my hand,” she says. “The Evian course is basically on the side of the mountain and because the ball was so far below my feet, I knew it was going to leak right. Four-hybrid was going to be just long enough to use the slope at the back of the green. Five-iron wasn’t going to carry the water safely enough. I hit it, and it came out of the middle, it came off nicely, and I could see it was tracking well. But I couldn’t see it clearly because I was looking into the sun. It was nice to hear the cheering getting louder, that was a good sign. I could tell from the noise it was getting closer and closer to the pin. I didn’t actually realise how good a shot it was until I got up to the green. Even just to finish with an eagle, without winning, I would have been happy with that.”

Grace Kim with her trusty 4-hybrid wood on the 18th hole of the Evian Championship Picture: AP

Your fourth shot to the first playoff hole. (Both playoff holes were the 18th). You’ve taken a penalty. Might have blown it. “I was obviously bummed by putting my second shot in the water,” she says. “You’re right. That could have been it, all over. But at that point, what are you going to do? You’re in a playoff. There’s no time to be fluffing around. I just sort of moved on. I knew I had to make an up-and-down. Give it my best shot to make a par. And then, well, I don’t even know how to describe it properly. I think I need to watch the video again. But I was telling myself before the chip, ‘Keep going. You never know.’”

Your four-hybrid to the last hole. Floated like a butterfly and landed like one. And the winning six-metre putt. “Same club, same shot, same hole as the last hole in regulation,” she says. “All I was trying to do was hit it on the green. Did that! Then standing over the putt, that was nerve-racking. I took a big, deep breath before I got into my routine. It was downhill, a double-breaker, and I thought, ‘Oh, this could go either way.’ I was asking my caddie, ‘What do you see? What do you think?’ In the end we said, ‘Let’s just look at the dead centre of the cup.’ It was very relieving, to say the least, when it went in the middle.”

Kim was a bit too excited to even cry or anything. Her Australian peers, led by Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, bolted forth and sprayed her with champagne. Kim is a teetotaller but she took a polite swig. They told her, “You have to drink this! Your turn!”

They ended up celebrating at a local. “We went to a pub,” Kim giggles. “I mean, I don’t drink, so I had to empty the champagne that I was given. I had a little replica of the trophy and everyone was drinking out of that. I had a sip here and there but I mostly stayed with my Coke Zero.”

These young ladies are rock stars of Australian sport. World No. 5 Lee, world No. 12 Green and world No. 25 Kim have all won ­majors, and now Kim and Lee have claimed the last two, and they’re all great mates, travelling together, getting bites of dinner ­together, joined by world No.39 Stephanie Kyriacou and world No.59 Gabriela Ruffels, countrywomen who could join them as major champions.

“It’s special to have true mates,” Kim says. “They’re the sort of mates who are happy for you even when they’re your rivals. You’re mates first. For them to be hanging back after their rounds at the Evian to support me and congratulate me, it says a lot about how close we are. That part of it was so big and so special to me. My mates were right there with me. I’d be right there for them. We’re travel buddies and we spend a lot of time together. Golf can be quite harsh and serious at times so to be able to have fun with it and share the journey with them – they’ve been a massive help to me. Hannah and Minjee have been out here the longest and I cannot thank them enough. To have our mateship as Australians on tour together has truly been a blessing.”

Grace Kim plays her second shot on the 18th hole . the second play-off hole of the Evian Championship Picture: Getty Images

Eagle, birdie, eagle. Send it! No (more) worries.

“It’s just wild,” she says. “The way it happened, and that it’s already a week ago. You don’t get to be in that moment forever. You just keep going on your journey, through different situations, learning what you’re like as a person in different scenarios, and what you’re like as a golfer in different conditions, and it’s all such a massive learning curve as an athlete. Then I think it’s also nice to relate all your lessons back to life. To keep learning more and more about yourself.”

Example? “I can be impatient in my day-to-day life but golf is teaching me to be patient,” she says. “I’ve learned that I love this lifestyle, the travelling, the competition, trying to improve, meeting new people, playing the best golf courses in the world, networking, the grinding, the striving, the vibes of the tournaments, the highs, the lows, it’s all so challenging and rewarding when it comes good. On the golf side of things, I’d say I’ve learned I’m pretty self-­sufficient. I know what I’m doing. I know what I need to get better at. That sort of stuff.”

Eagle, birdie, eagle. Better than rolling the Windies for 27. Better than Sinner winning Wimbledon. “I remember it all,” Kim says. “But I can’t feel it as much anymore. It doesn’t even feel like it was real. Like, I remember hitting every shot on those three holes. I can see them so clearly, even the one in the water, but to acknowledge to myself that I really did it, like I say, I have to go back and watch the video. I’ve watched it a few times by now! The fun part is there’s always the best ending. I know it happened but you know what else? I still don’t know how it ­happened.”

EXTRAORDINARY GOLF MAJOR FINISHES

KARRIE WEBB
Kraft Nabisco Championship (2006)
The Australian holed out with a wedge from the fairway on the 72nd hole to force a play-off against Mexico’s future world No.1, Lorena Ochoa, and then held her nerve to win it.

LARRY MIZE
The Masters (1987)
The only Augusta member ever to win The Masters, Mize sealed the title with a miraculous chip-in from more than 40m on the course’s toughest hole – clinching a play-off against Greg Norman in unforgettable style.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL
The Masters (2011)
With eight different players sharing the lead during a frantic final round, South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel became the first – and still only – champion to birdie Augusta National’s last four holes, finishing two strokes clear of Adam Scott and Jason Day.

GRACE KIM
Evian Championship (2025)
Trailing by three shots with four holes to play, the 24-year-old Australian fired birdie, birdie, par, eagle to force a play-off with world No.2 Jeeno Thitikul. Kim then chipped in for birdie and followed with another eagle to secure her first major title.

GEOFF OGILVY
US Open (2006)
Ogilvy’s par streak over the final four holes at Winged Foot seemed routine – until chaos unfolded around him. Jim Furyk bogeyed the last, missing the play-off. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie both double-bogeyed the 18th, squandering one-shot leads. Padraig Harrington bogeyed his last three holes to finish two strokes behind.