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Royal Porthcawl 2025

Grace Kim

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Adjusting to 'major winner' status ahead of Royal Porthcawl test

Grace Kim at Royal Porthcawl ahead of the AIG Women

Grace Kim says it’ll take time to get used to the words ‘major champion’ appearing in front of her name.

In fact, as she gets set to compete for back-to-back major titles at Royal Porthcawl this week, the 24-year-old has been re-watching footage from her remarkable triumph at this month’s Amundi Evian Championship in the hope it might start to sink in.

The Australian eagled the final hole in regulation to force her way into a play-off, before she secured the biggest victory of her career with a sensational birdie-eagle sequence.

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While Kim continues to adjust to her new status as a major winner, it won’t change her approach coming into another huge week at the AIG Women’s Open.

Speaking to media on the eve of her Championship, Kim said: “I have actually watched the videos again last night. I think it's really nice to be able to go through the footage. Yeah, just to kind of sink in is still in the process. It's probably not going to sink in a lot.

“I don't think it has changed all that much. Obviously people coming up to you and saying congratulations is really nice, but at the same time, when people put the two words 'major champion' in front, it's still quite hard to believe. I mean, I'm still the same me. So nothing much has changed.”

Grace Kim speaks to the press at Royal Porthcawl.

Grace Kim speaks to the media at Royal Porthcawl

“This week is already a big one. It's the last major of our season. I'm going to try and carry on the mentality that I had, which was just worry free,” she added.

"I know my game's good enough. Our team's put in a lot of effort, my own game, physical, everything behind the scenes. Hopefully, we can just showcase that.”

Kim will tee off with Brooke Henderson and Ruoning Yin at 8:09am on Thursday – but while she’s confident her game is suited to a links golf setting, she’s not placing too much stock in this week’s weather forecast.

“I think it's quite pointless to look at a forecast in the UK because it's always wrong. I just expect the worst and hope for the best to be honest. Hopefully we'll get the best," she said.

“I think just knowing that my game is there and good enough, just mentally preparing [for] whatever could happen; the wind could happen, the wind direction could change, rain can happen. But, yeah, trying to stay as calm as I can out here.

“I think it's a fair test. This golf course, when the wind does pick up, you've got some really tough into-wind holes. I think I had three holes where I hit 3-wood just short of the green. But then you've got holes that blow downwind and [there are] very gettable par-5s. I think it's a pretty fair test.”

You can view Thursday and Friday tee times in full here.

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