Just How Much Prize Money Could PGA Phenom Joohyung Kim Win Across His Career?

For the first time in PGA Tour history, a player born in the 2000s won a Tour event.

Feel old yet?

Don’t worry if it does, because even the younger readers can feel the pain of Kim already totaling $4.7 million in career earnings despite just turning pro in 2018.

With Kim’s first win at the Wyndham Championship, he joined the likes of Chuck Kocsis, John McDermott and Jordan Spieth to win a PGA Tour event before being old enough to drink.

But if you think like most Americans do, the question instantly floods your mind: what is he on pace to make financially?

For this, we can compare against some of the others to win at such an early age.

With 2 career PGA wins, 6 International wins, a third-place finish and 4 top-10 finishes, the closest comparison of early success is Spieth.

Since 1970, Spieth has the record for youngest PGA Champion, after winning the 2013 John Deere Classic at 19 years and 11 months old.

When Spieth was Kim’s age, 5 months after his first win, he still only had 1 win, pairing it with an international win at the 2014 Emirates Australian Open, 3 second place finishes and 9 top-10s.

Those consistent performances before being 20 years and 4 months old gave him a cool $3.9 million.

Not bad, but still about $800,000 below the game’s youngest phenom.

But, if we factor in inflation since 2013, Spieth’s career earnings would be roughly $4.62 million, much closer to Kim’s current earnings.

So, does this mean that Kim is on a crash course for Spieths’ $52.8 million, which includes victories at the Masters, U.S. Open, The Open Championship, & 10 others? Who knows.

All that we do know is that Kim has certainly set himself up for success at an early age, and with him winning a tour event already and finishing top-25 in all 3 events so far, it’s safe to say he has no plans yet of slowing down.