Tom Kim topped the boys’s leaderboard after the third spherical on the Asian Video games as he seeks a gold medal that may considerably cut back the time he’s required to spend in South Korea’s navy.
Having began two pictures off the lead, Kim hit a superb five-under 65 that included 5 birdies and an eagle, taking him a stroke clear at 12 underneath par with one spherical to play.
Ready-bodied South Korean males are normally required to undertake between 18 and 21 months of navy service earlier than the age of 28.
Nonetheless the federal government rewards Asian Video games gold medals and Olympic medals of any color with a service exemption bar fundamental coaching, which lasts lower than a month.
Athletes who’ve beforehand secured the exemption embrace former Tottenham footballer Son Heung-min, who served for under three weeks in 2020 having received the Asian Video games two years earlier.
Kim hurried from the Presidents Cup in the USA to tee off on the Kasugai Nation Membership in Japan, having to handle on simply six hours of sleep and a 14-hour time distinction.
The 24-year-old beforehand got here near securing an exemption on the Paris Olympics in 2024, ending day one tied for third earlier than finally ending eighth.
Having appeared visibly emotional after that outcome, Kim is now chasing one other probability to cease navy service stalling his promising profession, which has already featured an Asian Tour order of benefit crown and 4 PGA Tour titles.
The world quantity 32’s lead would have been bigger had he not missed birdie putts on the 14th and 18th holes, however he stands away from Taiwan’s Wang Wei-hsuan, who had led in a single day, and Japan’s Kazuki Higa going into day 4.
The lads’s workforce occasion title gives one other route for navy exemption, with South Korea additionally topping the boys’s leaderboard by one stroke.
Gold in that occasion will exempt Tom Kim and SH Kim, 28, whatever the particular person outcome, however it might come too late for the third workforce member, Mun Do-yeob, who has already served.
“I give it some thought. It is so powerful,” SH Kim mentioned of the potential of navy service.
“I’m 100% nervous, for certain. It is numerous strain. I may keep on the PGA Tour (with a gold). That is my objective.”
