After graduating from the Epson Tour just one year ago, Auston Kim finds herself in an interesting position at the 2024 LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei.

The LPGA Tour rookie sits at 79th in the Race to CME Globe rankings, which is enough to keep her LPGA Tour card for the 2025 season but not enough to earn entry into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. The 24-year-old is currently 19 spots outside the top-60 cutoff for qualification into the year’s final event and needs two big weeks in Hawaii and at next week’s ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican if she wants to play her way into the field.

Her journey to the CME Group Tour Championship got off to a bit of a rocky start, with an opening-round 71 at Hoakalei Country Club, but a second-round 66 put the Vanderbilt University alum in a much better position, and Kim is now sitting in solo sixth and projected to jump up to 70th in the Race to the CME Globe rankings.

“I made a lot of good putts today,” Kim said after her second round. “I hit a lot of good drives. I put myself in good position I feel like the entire round. I made two big saves my first two holes. Managed to start out okay. I hit a lot of good chips out there on the front nine. Managed to keep myself in it.

“It was a bit frustrating not being able to make a lot of things happen in the front, but I kept myself in it and stayed patient and kept hitting great shots and it paid off in the end.”

If history repeats itself, Kim may find a way to play her way into the season-ending tournament, proving in the past that her best golf comes through at the end of a long season. On the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA last year, it took the Florida native until the last tournament of the 2023 Epson Tour season, the Epson Tour Championship, to pull off her first professional victory.

“I know I have the skills. I know I'm capable. I just kept reminding myself of that, that I'm capable,” said Kim. “I want to feel confident over my shots and focus on what I can do. So being really kind to myself knowing I can do it, and I feel like that's been the biggest difference this week. It's been a long year, a lot of learning. If I just believe in myself, I know that I can do anything.”

Kim tees off Hoakalei Country Club’s first hole at 12:20 p.m. local time. If the rookie can put together two low rounds over the final two days in Hawaii, she will definitely be a player to watch when the Tour heads to Belleair, Fla., next week as she battles for a spot in the field at Tiburón Golf Club for the CME Group Tour Championship.

2023 Epson Tour Graduate Auston Kim Searching for Low Rounds to Finish Out Rookie Season

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