'I Miss Days When I Played On A Tour Without Cameras' - Tom Kim After Viral Mudbath

Tom Kim produced one of the moments of the day during the weather-delayed first round of the 2023 PGA Championship.

The South Korean, who has already made a name for himself on the PGA Tour as one of game's next generation of stars, only bolstered his appeal when cameras captured the hilarious moment he fell into a creek at Oak Hill and emerged with his legs and shirt covered in mud.

It happened on the par-4 6th hole (his 15th) as darkness fell in Rochester following a near two-hour delay in the morning due to frost. As such, the 20-year-old thought the incident might have gone undetected, only to find out he'd gone viral after signing for a three-over 73 that has him seven behind Bryson DeChambeau. 

After his round, Kim gave a hilarious play-by-play detailing how events unfolded from his perspective...

"I think the world has seen enough already of it, but I hit it over in the mud and I was hoping I'd be able to find it," he told Sky Sports. "I was hoping they wouldn't show this.

"I thought it was worth finding and as soon as I got in, I got my feet wet and I thought it's too late to come back from it. I wasn't able to find my ball and basically my legs were inside the mud and I wasn't able to get myself out for a minute.

"You see me there, you see me disappear, I was talking to Joe [Skovron, his caddie], I might just go in the water and wash myself off. I took a bath over there. I felt like it was going to be better than just having mud so I thought it was going to be better for me to wash my pants off.

"The worst thing was, I apologise to Nike, but the shirt is just completely ruined."

The clip then appears to show Kim taking another tumble but all was under control, sort of.

"That's just me taking a bath right there, yeah. It wasn't actually that bad but the mud was getting really cold under me feet and I thought, 'Man, navy seal training is going to be pretty hard'.

"But the water wasn't great and once I got out I was so focused on trying to get my shot ready, see I got myself cleaned out. I've had better days for sure.

"After that incident, I was talking to Sam [Burns] and he was like, 'I hope there was cameras out'. Well, I thought it was too late in the afternoon, no-one is going to be out here. Clearly I was wrong because it's a Major championship and it's 8.30 at night and you guys got all of it.

"You know, I miss days when I played on a tour without cameras."

Kim will be hoping for a less adventurous second round as he seeks to close the gap to the top and put himself in contention to capture a maiden Major title.