Michael Kim on His DM's With Nosferatu and How Sean Foley Helped Spark a Heater

If you’ve watched any golf the past, say, dozen or so tournaments, there’s an extremely high chance Michael Kim was in the field. The 31-year-old from San Diego is currently playing the best golf of his career, entering every tournament on the schedule and more often than not turning in a more than satisfactory showing. All this has culminated in an improbable invitation to The Masters, his second outing at the year’s debut major and his first since 2019. While Kim hasn’t won during his recent hot streak — his only tour win came in 2018 when he was, as he describes it, “playing really poorly” — his ability to string together a number of high finishes earned him the trip to Augusta.

It was much too close for comfort, though. After completing his final round at the Texas Children’s Houston Open on Sunday, March 30th, with a few bogeys and a cracked driver, he hopped in the shower and grabbed lunch, trying his best not to look at the leaderboard, at other names who could potentially knock him out of the year's first major. Unable to distract himself with a sandwich, he headed to X (Twitter), where he’s widely considered one of the most insightful PGA TOUR pros on the app), and consulted with a self-proclaimed Official World Golf Rankings guru named “Nosferatu.” Together, the duo calculated ways in which he would land in the top 50—resulting in a Masters invite—and ways in which he would fall short. It was almost as entertaining as the golf itself.

Before Kim's run of T-2, T-13, T-13, T-6, CUT, T-28, and T-32 at every tournament going back to the Waste Management, he was more known for that transparency and communicative spirit on Twitter than his game on the course. He offered thorough breakdowns of golf club deals and regularly engaged in Q&A’s, actively courting interactions on Twitter when most other people on Earth would run far, far away from the premise.

He offers insightful thoughts and observations from tournaments, commentates on other players’ performances, and even wades into controversies like pace of play. It’s a surprising characteristic for Kim, who’s self-described as “introverted” and someone who likes staying home.

Though Michael Kim’s career has changed drastically over the last few months, he’s maintained the same approach to his life online. The finishes are getting stronger and he’s sniffing tops of leaderboards with regularity, and he’s Tweeting through all of it. If you’re not following along on TV or in-person, he’ll be sure to let you know post-round exactly how he’s feeling whether he missed the cut, landed a top-10, or, just maybe, earned a win.

Is this the craziest moment of your career thus far?

I don't know about the wildest because when I won the John Deere, I was playing really poorly and that was truly a lightning in a bottle moment. I went to the British Open right after and all that. This one has been a slow build to a moment. It’s hit a landmark or some type of peek to cap off a nice run. This one doesn't feel as quite as surprising as it did at the John Deere.

Fluky is maybe a harsh word, but does this feel much more sustainable than that win?

I obviously had an awesome tournament at the John Deere and actually played really well at The Open the week after. I just played the last two or three holes each round poorly. I struggled with 17 and 18, but I got 30-something. After that, I kind of lost it again. I couldn’t find that magic that got me there. This definitely feels way more sustainable. I've obviously had some really good tournaments during the stretch and in the fall before the season. This doesn't feel like too much of a surprise to me, which is a good thing.

Was it eight weeks in a row that you were on the road?

Eight weeks in a row and 11 out of 12.

Have you taken a second to breathe and reflect on the insanity of it?

Eight weeks in a row is a lot. I actually, from a stats perspective, play my best golf on my fourth, fifth and sixth weeks in a row, which is odd. I had long stretches of golf back on the Korn Ferry Tour, when you're trying to get your card and you haven't locked it up. I knew what I was going to do in this busy stretch, which helps. This is my seventh or eighth year on the PGA tour now. I didn’t have to do a ton of homework with any of these courses. It was more about making sure my game felt good, my body felt good. I didn't have to wear myself out during the practice days. I saved most of my energy for the tournament days and then tried to recharge as soon as possible and get ready to do it again the next week.

How did this week change once you realized you didn’t have to play in the Valero?

It’s been a lot of trying to handle logistics of where I'm going to stay, who I’m going to give tickets to, trying to figure out all the other logistical side stuff with family and friends coming in. It's been great. Being able to share The Masters experience with some of my closest friends is going to be really cool. My entire family will be there, so it’s all great. I've also been really trying to focus on getting my body ready after that long stretch and not get too lackadaisical. I still want to maintain the form and stay sharp for The Masters, obviously. It’s been a little bit of everything this week.

How many tickets did you get?

I guess if you're a past champion it might be different, but I get 12. It’s good to spread them out a little bit amongst my friends because especially on such short notice, they can't take off an entire week. It's been a lot of mixing and matching. It's been good since that way I can spread 'em out a little bit more with some more guys.

You finished The Houston Open with a cracked driver and a few bogeys, so it was dicey. Where were you watching the end of the tournament? How were you tracking your spot in the OWGR?

I was eating lunch. I started around 10 something and finished around three or something. I was checking the leaderboard. I took a shower. I saw Ben Griffin make par on eight. He stuffed it but missed a short birdie. He made birdie on nine and that moved him up a couple spots ahead of me. I realized he might jump me. There’s the Twitter guy, Nosferatu, who’s the OWGR guru [laughs]. I was messaging him, ‘Hey, what's going on?’ I was eating and trying not to look at my phone, but I just couldn’t help myself and I kept checking the leaderboard to see what they were doing. It came down to Ryan Fox, who needed at least par or better on 18 to secure my spot. He made the putt and we were still playing the waiting game for the Official World Golf Rankings to come out.

Did you celebrate after you got the news?

Nothing too crazy. My parents didn't really know that it was that close, or they thought because Ben had played so well, they thought I wasn't going to get in. I called them and shared the news with them, but there wasn't a big celebration of any kind.

Had you interacted or heard of Nosferatu before or was it just in this context that you began following his work?

Just because I'm on Twitter often, I have seen his work before. After The Players I actually DM’ed him and asked what I would need in the next couple weeks to get inside the top 50, just to have a general sense of the goal. Before that, I had just been a very casual observer.

You’re known in the golf world for your honesty and a willingness to communicate on social media. Does that come from your personality? Is it financially or professionally driven?

I don't know if it's part of my personality per se. I keep to myself for the most part. I don't have a big circle of friends and I’m an introvert. I like staying home and whatnot. I don't know exactly what the catalyst for all of it was, but I remember getting bored during the Korn Ferry Tour season. That was three or four years ago. As soon as I got my card, the first tournament I played in was the Procore Championship. Back then it was the Safeway Napa tournament. Max Homa’s career and mine haven’t really come together at the same time. If he was playing well, I was playing bad and vice versa. When I played the first two days with him, I just had seen his following grow a ton through his social media stuff. That really opened my eyes to how I could grow my brand through Twitter, chronicling my ups and downs from golf. I felt like I had a different perspective and some good stories and good insights I could share. A decent amount of people have liked it so far, which is great.

Has your transparency ever backfired on you?

Other than some troll comments by LIV bots, which I block all the time, I don’t think so. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how positive it's all been because social media can be a bit of a mixed bag.

I think cesspool is the word you’re looking for.

I didn't know if I wanted to use that one, but yeah, that is one of the words that came to my mind [laughs].

Do you stick to golf Twitter? So much else on there can be kind of nuts.

Everyone sees all the bad stuff there, but it's all from the ‘For You’ page. It's not from the page of people you’re following. My following page is pretty simple, it's just a lot of golf and some sports. That's about it. Then you go to the other page and it's so many weird political things and all that. I try to consciously stay off that page. I think that's the right way to do it.

Is there something that has changed in your game that you can identify as the biggest thing that has helped the sustainable run?

It’s been a slow build, but there are definitely some key moments that I can come back to. I give a ton of credit to Sean Foley who helped me back on the path that I wanted to be on in the last few months. Right after the Black Desert Championship in the fall, I missed the cut and Sean couldn't go home because there was a hurricane warning and his flight got pushed back a day or two. We spent some time together, the Friday after I missed the cut. We felt like my swing was in a really good spot, but I just kept hitting it left. We put the ball position back towards my right foot more and that instantly helped make it much better. The start line was better. It was drawing, but it wasn't overdrawing, which it had been before. The week after that was in Vegas and I just made sure to watch my ball position. I had a really good final round there. That took a lot of the edge off of trying to keep my card, because I was right on the bubble there. The Vegas finish really gave me some cushion and I had a really nice end of the fall season. We were really happy with my swing, so we just kept going in that direction and it's built to this.

What’s one thing about being a pro golfer, but outside of the top 20 or so, that’s more difficult than people imagine?

With The Masters specifically, it takes a few times just to get over the fact that you're playing The Masters. It's a venue and a tournament that you’ve dreamed about playing forever. The same thing hits when you play on the PGA tour for the first time. There's always that adjustment period. It's only my second time at The Masters and I'm going to have to try and get over just being happy to be there. I want to do better than just being out there. I want to play well and I want to hopefully contend heading into Sunday.

It's trying to balance the satisfaction of the hard work you've done with not being satisfied at the same time?

Yeah, just not being too complacent out there. I want to take it how I would take the Valero if I was playing this week. I'm still playing against my peers and it's not this completely different experience.

What's one thing you're looking to buy from the pro shop?

That’s a good question. I'm not going to buy a gnome. I heard it might be the last year they're doing that. I don't think I'd buy one of those. I'm definitely going to buy way more stuff than I did last time. I only bought a few things and I didn't buy as much as I should have. They obviously make great gifts too, so I'll probably head in there early and get my shopping done and over with.

When do you touch down in Georgia?

I fly in on Sunday, midday. That’s the plan.