PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Chan Kim can’t wait to start changing some baby diapers. First, he’d like to regain his PGA Tour card for the 2026 season at PGA Tour Q-School. 

On Thursday, the 35-year-old who grew up in Hawaii took a step in the right direction by shooting a bogey-free 6-under 64 at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass to take a one-stroke lead after the first round at Q-School.

Kim’s first child, daughter Jenna, was born three weeks premature and has spent the past month at the hospital due to hydrops, a life-threatening condition in the fetus characterized by an accumulation of fluid, or edema, in the lungs.

“Very emotional the first two weeks,” said Kim, who also noted his daughter suffers from a minor blood clot in her heart. “Doctors didn’t know if she was going to survive, which in turn just put us under a lot of stress. But every day we’re getting better news and her labs are coming back great.”

The best news of all? Jenna came home on Wednesday. Kim missed her birth after his wife required an emergency C-section. He was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, competing in the Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship, where he missed the cut for the 12^th time in his last 15 starts.

Running out of time to secure his card for next year, Kim pressed on at the final two fall events while Jenna received treatment in the NICU. 

“I was so focused on that that nothing else really mattered at that point,” he said.

Kim was 8 over after 11 holes at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship yet recovered to finish T-22. He made the cut at the RSM Classic too, but it wasn’t good enough to salvage his season. He finished No. 130 in FedEx Cup standings, losing full status and returning to final stage of PGA Tour Q-School with hopes of winning one five cards available to the field of 176. Q-School is old hat for Kim, who has made it through Canadian Tour Q-School, Asian Tour Q-School, Japan Tour Q-School twice, as well as Challenge Tour status off European Tour Q-School. He finished second at PGA Tour Q-School in 2022. 

“It’s easier said than done, but at the end of the day, it’s just another tournament that you’re trying to win,” he explained. “You’re not really focusing on trying to just finish top-5, you’re out here to try and win. So that’s always been my mentality at Q-School.”

It didn’t hurt that Kim’s putter was hot on Thursday. He rolled in birdie putts of 25 feet at 7, 30 feet at 9 and somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 or 40 feet, he estimated, at 11. 

“I missed all the easy ones, I made all the hard ones,” he said.

One round down, three more to go and then Kim can get back to daddy duties, which include countless diapers in his immediate future. (He’s changed one so far.) A PGA Tour card would go a long way to paying the bills for next year.

“You know, I’ve got to find a way to make diaper money at least,” he said. 

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Chan Kim leads PGA Tour Q-School after newborn released from hospital