Si Woo Kim becomes youngest Players Championship winner but must soon take 21 months off for national service
South Korean Kim carded a final round of 69 at Sawgrass to finish 10 under par, three shots ahead of Ian Poulter and former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen
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Your support makes all the difference.South Korea's Si Woo Kim produced a nerveless display to become the youngest ever winner of the Players Championship but will soon be set to put his burgeoning career on hold for 21 months for national service.
Kim carded a final round of 69 at Sawgrass to finish 10 under par, three shots ahead of Ian Poulter and former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.
After his victory in the Wyndham Championship last year, Kim is the fourth player in the last 25 years to win twice on the PGA Tour before the age of 22, following in the footsteps of Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia and Jordan Spieth.
And the 21-year-old is also comfortably the youngest winner of the so-called "fifth major" - surpassing the record set by former world number one Adam Scott, who was 23 when he won in 2004.
But he will soon be set for time out of the game with South Korea requiring all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 to complete at least 21 months in the military as a deterrent to North Korean aggression.
It offers exemptions to athletes who win a medal of any colour at the Olympics or gold at the Asian Games but unfortunately for Kim, winning the PGA Tour's flagship event does not bring an exemption.
"I really wish we could have that benefit," he said. "However, regardless of me winning this tournament I really have to go to the military service, and I've already decided I'm going to go so I'm ready for that."
Kim began the day two shots off the lead shared by Americans JB Holmes and Kyle Stanley - but birdies on the first, seventh and ninth gave him a two-shot lead at the turn.
Poulter closed the gap with a birdie on the 11th but the 41-year-old Ryder Cup star three-putted the 12th to end his bogey-free run at 39 holes and did well to salvage a bogey at the last after a wild approach into the trees resulted in a penalty drop.
A run of nine pars in succession on the back nine was enough for Kim to seal victory, while Spain's Rafa Cabrera Bello produced a far more spectacular finish to claim a tie for fourth with Stanley.
Cabrera Bello holed out from 181 yards for the first albatross in tournament history on the 16th, then followed that with another two on the 17th, before holing from 35 feet for par on the last after hooking his tee shot into the water.
PA/Reuters
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