Tom Kim wrote the latest chapter of a history-making week at The Los Angeles Country Club as he equalled the nine-hole record for the U.S. Open on day three.
The South Korean made birdies on the first, third, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth to cover the front nine in just 29 blows, becoming the first player ever to do that at the event on their first nine.
Neal Lancaster, twice, Vijay Singh and Louis Oosthuizen are the other players to have covered nine holes in 29 shots, all doing so in the second nine of their respective rounds.
Kim made a seventh birdie of the day on the tenth but recorded three bogeys coming in and was happy to have made hay on a front nine that played over a shot less difficult than the back over days one and two.
"I didn't have many mistakes," he said. "Really played solid golf, didn't miss a shot, didn't miss a putt.
"I was seven under through ten but I knew that the hardest part of the golf course was right in front of me, so I kept telling myself, 'I've just got to keep hitting good shots', and if I make birdies, great, if I don't, it's fine because I feel like the back nine you shoot even par you gain one or two shots on the field. It's a tough back nine."
Kim got up and down to take advantage of the par-five first before putting his approach to the third to four feet and holing an 18-footer at the fourth.
He got up and down from the sand on the sixth and then made a two-putt birdie on the eighth, with a tee-shot to five feet at the ninth setting up another gain and sealing his place in the history books.
