Michael Kim Shoots 59 at the 3M Open and Turns a Late-July PGA Tour Week Into a Very Real Story

Image: PGA TOUR

The 3M Open was already supposed to matter.

Now it has the kind of number that makes everybody stop pretending late July is just calendar filler.

According to the Associated Press round-two report published Friday, July 24, 2026, and carried by the PGA TOUR, Michael Kim shot a bogey-free 12-under 59 at TPC Twin Cities, making a 24-foot birdie putt on the 18th to become the latest player to crack golf’s favorite absurd number. The same report says Kim got to 14-under par for the tournament and opened a three-shot lead through 36 holes.

That is not a quiet Friday.

This piece is based on the AP’s July 24, 2026 round-two report, as published by the PGA TOUR and other AP syndication outlets, checked on Saturday, July 25, 2026. No pretending I was behind the 18th green calling the break on the putt before it left the blade.

For the bigger week-level setup first, read our 3M Open pressure-week opinion, our Thursday take on Jackson Koivun’s 64, and the earlier membership-and-stakes news piece on Stefano Mazzoli and Casey Jarvis.

Kim Did Not Just Slip Into a Nice 64

This was one of those rounds that gets weird in a hurry.

The AP report says Kim birdied the final four holes to get the job done, which is a ridiculous way to close any round and an even more ridiculous way to finish a run at 59. The same report says his previous career low on TOUR was 62, so this was not a guy casually shaving one shot off an already-famous personal best.

He blew past it.

And he did it cleanly.

AP also reported that Kim made:

• five straight birdies beginning at No. 3
• another three birdies in a four-hole stretch beginning at No. 9
• and eight birdies from outside 10 feet

That last detail is always where these rounds stop looking merely solid and start looking slightly possessed.

The Lead Is Real, Not Decorative

The 59 is the headline because of course it is.

The better competitive detail is that Kim did not just shoot a history-round and wind up tied for eighth because somebody else also shot 61.

According to the AP report, he heads into the weekend at 14-under, three clear of:

• Ben Kohles
• Chandler Phillips
• Emiliano Grillo

That matters because it turns the story from “cool number, thanks for coming” into an actual tournament-shape story.

Kohles had started the day with the lead and shot 69. Grillo posted 67. Phillips shot 65. All of that is good golf. All of that still lost three shots to Kim.

Scottie Is Around, But He Is Not the Story Right Now

One of the easiest ways golf coverage screws up weeks like this is by immediately asking how the world’s biggest star fits into a story somebody else just earned.

Yes, Scottie Scheffler is in the field. No, he is not the main point of Friday.

The AP recap says Scheffler shot 70 and sat seven shots back after a double bogey on 14 and a bogey on 17. That keeps him in the tournament because seven shots at TPC Twin Cities is not a death sentence if somebody cools off.

But Friday belonged to Kim, not to the gravitational pull of the ranking board.

That is important.

The More Useful Context Is How Unsteady Kim’s Month Had Looked

This round gets more interesting when you stop reading it like a clean upward trend.

The AP report says Kim’s best finish in the 12 tournaments after his runner-up at the Valero Texas Open was only 17th, and that he had missed four cuts, including the last three weeks at:

• The Open Championship
• Genesis Scottish Open
• John Deere Classic

That is a jagged recent run.

AP also reported that Kim had thought about skipping the week after playing the previous five weeks, then decided he still had decent energy after going home following his missed cut at Royal Birkdale.

That is the part that makes golf so funny.

Sometimes the week you nearly pass on becomes the week you write yourself into the tournament’s record book.

Why This One Will Stick

AP said this was the 15th 59 in PGA TOUR history, and the fourth sub-60 round on TOUR since 2024.

So yes, sub-60 rounds are more common now than they once were.

No, that does not make them boring.

The number still means something because it still requires a player to keep pushing when the whole round starts to feel haunted by the scoreboard. Kim still had to stand on the 18th green, look at the putt, and hit it hard enough to get there without shoving it past the hole.

He did.

That is why this does not read like a stats footnote. It reads like the round that reintroduced him to the middle of the TOUR conversation all at once.

Bottom Line

Michael Kim shot a bogey-free 59 in the second round of the 3M Open on Friday, July 24, 2026, according to the AP report carried by the PGA TOUR, and got to 14-under with a three-shot lead through 36 holes.

That is the obvious headline.

The better one might be that a player who had missed his last three cuts and briefly considered skipping the week just turned a supposedly sleepy post-major stop into one of the loudest stories on the golf calendar.

For the companion take on what this says about the week itself, read why Kim’s 59 is the best argument against calling the 3M Open filler.