Kim Ju-hyung overcomes wrong-ball penalty to finish T6 at Mexico Open

Kim Ju-hyung overcame a wrong-ball penalty to secure his fifth top-10 finish of the season at the PGA Tour's Mexico Open.

Kim carded a 5-under-par 66 in the final round of the VidantaWorld Mexico Open at Vidanta Vallarta (par 71) in Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit, Mexico, on Monday (Korean Standard Time), posting six birdies against one bogey. The tournament carried a purse of $6 million.

Kim finished at 18 under par (266) to share sixth place with Brian Campbell, Doug Kim and Pearson Coody of the United States and Erik van Rooyen of South Africa. It was Kim's first top-10 result in roughly three months, since a tied-fifth finish at the Wyndham Championship in August.

The trouble began in the second round, when Kim and playing partner Campbell accidentally swapped balls on the ninth hole (par 4). Both balls had come to rest in bunkers near the same green, and each player mistakenly played the other's ball.

Once the error was discovered, both players returned to their original balls and replayed the shots, but each received a two-stroke penalty and made double bogey. The incident dropped Kim as far back as a tie for 26th.

Kim rallied by shooting 6 under in the third round and 5 under in the final round to climb back up the leaderboard. It was also notable that Kim and Campbell — who received their penalties together — ultimately finished in a tie with each other.

Kim picked up birdies on the third hole (par 5) and sixth hole (par 5) on Monday. A bogey on the seventh (par 3) was quickly erased with a birdie on the eighth (par 5). Kim then played the back nine bogey-free, making birdies on the 10th (par 4), 12th (par 5) and 14th (par 4) to close out the round.

The tournament was Kim's first PGA Tour start since winning a gold medal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Kim had already secured a PGA Tour card through the 2028 season with a victory at the Genesis Scotland Open in July.

Andrew Novak of the United States won at 25 under par (259), pulling away from the field by five strokes. Steven Fisk of the United States and Kristoffer Ventura of Norway shared second place at 20 under (264).

Novak had previously won the Zurich Classic alongside Ben Griffin last year — a team event — making this his second PGA Tour victory overall and his first in an individual stroke-play event. The winner's share was $1.08 million.

Griffin and Mackenzie Hughes of Canada finished tied for fourth at 19 under (265).