Blythewood, SC – Sunny Kim of Palm Beach Gardens, FL began Saturday’s final round of the eGolf Tour’s ninth annual Columbia Open at 11-under par, trailing overnight leader Ryan Sullivan of Winston-Salem, NC by two shots. Out of the gate early in the fourth round, Sullivan faltered, providing an open door for Kim to run through. The 25-year-old took full advantage of his opportunity, birdieing three of his first 11 holes en route to a closing 67 – good for a 15-under par total and career win No. 1 on the eGolf Tour.

Kim’s week at host Columbia Country Club began in solid fashion with rounds of 70-67-65—202 (11-under) putting him in solo-second place through 54 holes. Trailing Sullivan by two with 18 holes to play, Kim quickly morphed into the player being chased as opposed to the one doing the chasing.

Early in the final round, Sullivan struggled mightily, double-bogeying the par-4 second and bogeying the long par-4 third to drop from 13-under to 10-under, suddenly pushing Kim into the lead at a steady 11-under, thanks to all pars on his scorecard.

Sullivan fell even further off the map with bogeys on Nos. 4 and 6, which allowed Kim to grab a firm hold on the lead when a birdie at the par-5 seventh took him to 12-under and in command of the tournament.

Sunny Kim

“Ryan had some tough breaks at the beginning, but for me, I’m playing the golf course,” said Kim, a native of South Korea. “My goal was to get to 16-under today, and I thought if I shot 5-under today, I’d have a good chance to win.”

After turning at 1-under 34, Kim began to run away from the field with birdies on 10 and 11 to jump to 14-under par – three clear at the time with seven holes to play.

“I hit a great shot on 10 to about 2 feet, then hit another good one on 11 and made it, so that was a good start,” Kim said.

Pars at the par-5 12th and short par-4 13th kept Kim at 14-under par, while a bogey at the 245-yard par-3 14th was offset with a scrambling birdie at the par-5 15th to keep him ahead at 14-under for the week.

“That birdie at 15 was a nice cushion, nice motivation to keep things going,” said Kim, who hit his tee shot in the trees before getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker for his four.

After missing a short birdie try at 16, Kim rebounded with a 20-foot birdie bomb up a tier on the par-3 17th. His ensuing fist pump may as well have been the signal that the lights could be turned out, and the party was in fact over.

At the par-4 18th, he added a solid two-putt to finish off a final-round 67 and a 15-under par total, good for a commanding three-shot win and the event’s $14,000 first-place prize.

“I drove it really well this week, hit some good iron shots, and made some putts,” said Kim, who hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation. “I’m really proud of myself and the fact that I got this win.”

Kim’s journey to the top of the Columbia leaderboard was not your typical path. After finishing high school in Queens, NY, Kim turned professional at the age of 18 and moved to South Florida to begin pursuing his PGA TOUR dream full-time.

“It’s been a journey. This is my fifth year doing this – I kind of feel like a veteran,” he said. “I’ve had Web.com Tour status three of those five years, but not good enough to play in events. So I just have to keep on going because I know it will happen.”

Seamus Power

Kim’s decision had the full blessing of his parents, who have helped to back him along the way. Proclaiming that he didn’t “really like school,” Kim opted to instead bet on himself and his vast talent, while his peers headed off to four years of college golf.

“I had opportunities to go to some schools, but my parents said, ‘If you want to go, go do it. Just work hard and everything will work itself out,’” he said.

From here, Kim will head back down to South Florida for U.S. Open qualifying and to compete on some of the minor-league circuits that play in and around his backyard. A handful of qualifiers for Web.com and PGA TOUR events may be on the horizon, but that’s a slippery slope he is somewhat cautious of sliding down.

“This year I’ve been doing a lot of Monday qualifiers, and if you don’t qualify, it’s not really good for your game,” he said. “Even if you shoot 1- or 2-under, you still wonder what’s wrong with your game.”

As it turned out, nothing appears to be wrong with Kim’s game – a fact he was able to justify with 72 holes of stellar golf over four days in Columbia.

Seamus Power of Waterford, Ireland finished in solo-second place at 12-under 272 (three shots back of Kim) thanks in part to a birdie at the 72nd hole that broke him out of a tie for runner-up honors. The former East Tennessee State star earned $8,000 for the week.

Adam Stephenson

For Power, the runner-up was simply more of the same in what has been a stellar 2014 campaign. The 27-year-old now has five top-6 finishes in five starts, including his third career tour win at the Cowans Ford Open in March.

Power opened the year with back-to-back top-5s at the Palmetto Hall Championship and Championship at Callawassie Island, added the win at Cowans Ford, and held the 36- and 54-hole leads at The Championship at St. James Plantation last month until a final-round 76 left him tied for sixth on the week. He is currently atop the tour’s money list with $33,414 in season-long earnings.

Adam Stephenson of Greenville, NC posted a career-best, third-place finish with an 11-under 274 total. He earned $6,040 for his efforts.

Stephenson made a final-round run at Kim, birdieing Nos. 5, 7, 8 and 10 to pull within one shot of the lead with eight holes to play, but failed to add any more pressure coming home. A bogey at the 12th was offset by a birdie at the 13th, and from there, the 24-year-old closed with five consecutive pars to earn the second top-5 of his eGolf Tour career. The former East Carolina golfer now has three top-15 finishes in four starts this year.

Matt Ryan of Santa Clarita, CA, Ted Brown of Glen Allen, VA, and Sullivan finished in a three-way tie for fourth at 10-under 274. Each player earned $4,566 for the week.

The T4 marked a third straight top-5 for Ryan on the eGolf Tour, dating back to runner-up finishes at both Callawassie Island and St. James. The former Fresno State star also posted a runner-up at PGA TOUR Latinoamerica’s TransAmerican Power Products CRV Open in Mexico, losing out in a seven-man playoff for the title.

To his credit, Sullivan was able to right the ship that was sinking on the front nine. After turning at 6-over 41, the 2013 PGA TOUR Latinoamerica winner played bogey-free golf on the back nine, birdieing the 12th and eagling the 15th on his way to a 3-under 33 and a final-round 74. The T4 was his best finish on the eGolf Tour since a T3 at the Willow Creek Open in May of last year.

• The tour would like to thank Columbia Country Club General Manager Chris Sparrow and his staff for their help in conducting this tournament. A great job was done by Columbia Head Golf Course Superintendent Jim Young and his crew to prepare the course for tournament play. Last but certainly not least, thank you to the members of Columbia Country Club for allowing the tour to have access to the course for tournament week.

• The eGolf Tour will be off the next two weeks for U.S. Open local qualifying, but will return to action on May 21-23, 2014 for the annual Willow Creek Open, to be contested at Willow Creek Country Club in High Point, NC.