Michael Kim has been unstoppable in 2025, having played 11 PGA Tour events before April already. Not an easy feat to achieve. For context, there have been 14 PGA Tour events played so far until the 2025 Texas Children’s Houston Open. Two of them were played in the same week, which brings the number down to 13. Kim has only missed The Sentry and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this year.

Kim has shown some brilliant strokeplay in his 11 appearances so far. He has made 8 cuts, 5 of which were top-25 finishes. The Seoul local ended in the top 10 rankings of the leaderboard 3 separate times and also had a runner-up finish in the WM Phoenix Open 2025. Thomas Detry blew away everyone and had a 7-stroke lead against the field during that event. But the Houston Open was Kim’s final bout. And that has helped him squeeze into the top 50 world rankings to book a ticket to Augusta National. Now that he has qualified for the Masters Tournament, the 31-year-old has made a major decision.

As revealed by Underdog Golf, Michael Kim will not be playing in the upcoming Valero Texas Open. This will be the final PGA Tour event before he plays in the green jacket event. But having had one of the most hectic seasons yet, the Korean native has understandably chosen to take a break from professional golf. Those who played extensively in March, including the Players Championship and Florida Swing, have taken a similar stance. Stars like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Jordan Spieth have occasionally withdrawn or skipped pre-Masters events.

The tweet was shared a few minutes ago as it read “Michael Kim (The Masters) a WD from Valero Texas Open.” This confirms that Kim has withdrawn from a trip to the Oaks Course to compete in his 12th tournament for the season. With a Masters Tournament qualification, he will be away from golf for over a week preparing for his second appearance in the tournament.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Michael Kim has followed this path. Let’s take a look at his schedule in the last few seasons.

Michael Kim’s usual PGA Tour schedule before the Masters Tournament

In 2024, Michael Kim played 30 events in total. 11 of them came before the PGA Tour took a trip to Augusta National. Kim did participate in the Valeron Texas Open 2024. However, he balanced out his schedule as he didn’t qualify for the Genesis Invitational last year. Unfortunately, he had not earned his way into the Masters Tournament 2024. Hence, the remainder of his schedule is justified.

The 2022-23 season of the PGA Tour was much more hectic for Kim with 32 tournaments played in the season. From January to April, the 1x PGA Tour winner only played in 7 events. However, since the season had started in September 2022, he had already completed 14 tournaments by then. The last time he broke this pattern of schedule was in 2019 when Kim made it to the Masters Tournament for the first time. He played in the Valspar Championship and took a 20-day break to prepare for Augusta National.

Michael Kim’s drive to compete in nearly every tournament for most of the FedEx Cup season is definitely impeccable. And his hard work has paid off considering that he has qualified for the Masters Tournament 2025. Do you think Michael Kim will also leave an impact in the first major of the season? Share your opinions in the comments section.