The 2025 DP World Tour Championship, worth $10M, started on a good note for Michael Kim. After the first round, he looked like he was going to be the top contender in the season finale. He led Tommy Fleetwood & the field by 1 stroke after scoring an incredible 8-under 64. Kim would have hoped to repeat his performance and extend his lead even further on Friday. However, to his disappointment, he ended up conceding strokes. And that left the 32-year-old disappointed.

After completing the second set of 18 holes, Kim expressed himself on X on Friday. “That… was bad 😓 Some could say I couldn’t handle the pressure lol. But we’re only halfway, and I still feel pretty good about my game. Let’s have a great weekend!” he wrote.

After a flawless Thursday, he managed to concede four bogeys and a double bogey on Friday. The mishit on the second shot of the 470-yard par-4 12th hole was probably his worst shot of the day. Ironically, Kim managed a birdie there in round 1. Overall, he managed to score 4-over 76, bringing his cumulative score to 4-under. This day would obviously be considered bad since he had set a special record a day earlier.

After the DP World Tour announced him leading the field at the end of the day, he reshared the tweet and revealed that, “I don’t remember the last time I had the solo first round lead… honestly, might be my first as a pro? Let’s keep it going!” This was true. While he has been tied at the top position before, Kim has never been the only leader after the end of the first 18 holes of an event.

“Just had everything going. Drove it in the fairway enough times, and I hit my irons really great, and was able to roll some putts in. My coach Sean and I worked a quick FaceTime session on Monday night and worked really well. Happy to hit that many inside 10 feet (3 meters),” he said after R1.

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To go from the record-setting performance to T21 on the leaderboard must have been really frustrating for Michael Kim.But what went wrong for Michael Kim on the Friday of the 2025 DP World Tour Championship?

How did Michael Kim lose control over his lead in the DPWT Championship?

While Michael Kim did have a flawless first round, he was far from it on Friday. And the biggest issue he faced was with his driving and iron play. All the over pars Kim conceded in the second round came from bad tee shots. He missed the fairway in nearly all of those holes and also landed in the bunker in most of them. That made it difficult for him to hit his approach shot accurately.

Speaking of approach shots, Michael Kim also struggled to find the green in regulation consistently throughout the round. That became a major concern throughout the day as he had to hit many recovery shots and scramble to ensure he was making par rather than challenging for a birdie. For someone who is possibly in contention for the title, that is certainly not an approach he should be favoring.