Heritage Day 2: Thomas holds the lead, Si Woo Kim makes a big move. How close is he?
Driving around Hilton Head during RBC Heritage week can be trying even for the best on the road. It’s much harder when you’re stuck in first gear.
As brilliant as Justin Thomas’ first round, course-record tying 61 was on Thursday, his Friday round wasn’t bad, it just didn’t get to the upper gear he found yesterday.
Today was a respectable 2-under 69 to keep the tournament lead at two-strokes after 36 holes.
The old golf adage on the tour has always been, “it’s always tough to follow a great round with another great round” and that was the theme today for Thomas, Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark. The latter two dropping four spots to a tie for sixth and eighth respectively. Scheffler’s second shot on the eighth hole and appeared to kiss a pine tree limb on the way toward the green and ended up in the bunker on the short side of the hole. As he was handing his mid-iron back to his caddie Ted Scott, he pulled it back and whacked the dirt beneath the rough as if to knock all the bad karma off it before he needed that club again. This proves what weekend players and the world’s number one know: golf is hard.
Making a big statement
The big mover, with his hands firmly on the wheel, was Si Woo Kim who moved up 19 places after carding a solid 7-under to put himself two strokes behind Thomas. Also making a big climb up the board were Mackenzie Hughes who ended day two at 8-under (up 15 spaces to T6) and Collin Morikawa who moved up 23 spots to a tie for eighth at 7-under. Those three players put themselves back in the hunt for the tartan blazer after the signature tournament’s halfway point.
One of the signature shots of the tournament was Thomas’ second at the par 5, #15 where he blindly hit a fairway metal 280 yards over thick trees and somehow got the ball to land on the right side of the green and stop 22-feet from the hole for an eagle opportunity. He would go on to make a kick-in birdie to take the lead back to two strokes. If Thomas goes onto win wire-to-wire, that shot may be the one he looks back on as a crucial moment leading to him maintaining a lead and momentum.
Si Woo Kim’s loud announcement that he was back in contention happened on a different but similar par 5 on #5 where he hit his second shot from the elbow of a dogleg left fairway 276 yards to 5-feet from the hole and made the putt for eagle three.
Going into Saturday’s traditional moving day (although there was plenty of moving today) there are eleven players within five strokes of Thomas’ lead and anyone from that gang who can put a 64 or 65 on their card will get everyone’s attention going into Sunday’s final round.
As for the weather and the course conditions, the players are expecting cooler temperatures and a firmer and bouncier course especially on the greens where the sun has dried them out to running true but fast.
Who is Si Woo?
Kim, 29, was born in Seoul, South Korea and has four wins on the PGA tour including the 2017 PGA Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He become that tournament’s youngest-ever winner. In 2025, as in years past, Kim plays more tournaments than most players. He’s already started twelve tournaments and made it to the weekend in eight.
Kim is no stranger to the top of the leaderboard at Harbour Town. In 2018 he was tied after 72 holes and lost in a sudden-death playoff to Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira back when the purse was $6.7 million and not the $20 million it has been for the past two years and is again in 2025.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 6:50 PM.