For a while, looked like Sunday in DP World Tour’s FedEx Open de France would be Brooks Koepka’s Days of Liv Golf Star began the day linked for the 54th Vrima lead and kept the lead on nine back as he watched his first victory since Liv Greenbrier last August.
But Koepka deceived par-4 15 and did not make birds in par-5 16, which opened the door for Michael Kim to do something that was not done in 53 years.
Kim, a sensation of social media enjoying a year in his career, started the first day from the rhythm in the Golf de Saint-nom-la-Bretèche, but he quickly linked the lead with a 40-foot-old bird stroke. Kim Kim turned to 33 and a bird to 10 brought him once again within one of the lead. Kim then made a strong blow to 16 to connect the lead and grabbed solo leaders with a seven-legged bird stroke in the 17th.
But Kim’s trip to his DP girls’ victory at World Tour would not be easy.
Needing to make money to avoid a play-off with the crowd in favorite home Jeong Weon KO and Australian Elvis Smylie, Kim found the bunker with his shooting in par-3 18. He spread to 16 meters, leaving himself a complicated bumper to seal victory.
The 32-year-old surveyed Putt with the Parisian sun setting, put a safe blow on the blow and bent Putt on the right side to enter the house on 16 under.
Kim nervously observed the leaders of the 54 holes, but Koepka, Min Woo Lee and Marcus Armitage were not all able to match his mark, allowing Kim to become the first American to win Open de France in 53 years.
.@Mike_kim714 is the first American player to win French Open in 53 years
American players to win Open de France all the time:
Walter Hagen, 1920
Byron Nelson, 1955
Barry Jaeckel, 1972
Michael Kim, 2025– Justin Ray (@justinraygolf) September 21 2025
“To be honest, I felt like I hit a good bunker kick (at 18) and that stroke – green slips so much that I knew it would be fast, and it just didn’t come out as much as I thought,” Kim said after shooting a Sunday 65 to win. “(Smylie) gave me a good look on the side, and, man, I don’t know that somehow stayed very straight in the middle. I kind of black when he went inside.
“(I hadn’t won since then) 2018 The John Deere Classic, and I really wanted to wear a good show here this week, and I’m so happy and grateful that I was able to go out with a victory.”
Kim season at PGA Tour started hot. He completed T2 at the WM Phoenix Open, T13 at the Invitational Genesis, T6 in Classic Cognizant and Fourth in Arnold Palmer Invitational. His game cooled down after Kim did not post another Top-10 end until the 10th BMW championship with 50 BMW men.
Koepka ended up in fourth place, two shots behind Kim.
If Kim, who often camps the Q&A sessions of traveling with fans on X, gets questions on Monday, he may be understandable.
“I have a flight tomorrow morning, but just to that point, I will drink a lot of French wine and some champagne, I’m sure,” Kim said.
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