Chocolate was Tom Kim's treat in Las Vegas last year, now he's looking for a sweet threesome

After Tom Kim's second straight Shriners Children's Open win in 2023, the big story wasn't his stellar play at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.

When I asked Kim in his winner's press conference what the Vegas celebration would be like – now that he was 21 – his answer shocked the internet and went viral.

“I'm going to go home and finish a piece of chocolate that I wanted to finish, so that's what I'm going to do,” Kim said. “And then I’ll order room service and go to bed. Then I will get up at 3 a.m. and take my flight at 6:30 a.m. It will be exciting.”

The next thing you know, the PGA Tour and all of golf's social media were in turmoil. The response even made the Netflix series Full of momentum when the new season debuted a few months later.

On Tuesday, in the same press area, this writer asked Kim to reflect on last year's response and ask if he was aware of how much interest it had generated.

“The response received a lot of positive comments and at the time I didn't really understand why because it was just very pure and honest,” Kim said. “I didn't try to make anything of it. For me it was just a very real answer. But it was nice to see people enjoying it. I still remember eating it. It was a straight win(s) and having the final stretch on Saturday night was very sweet. I don’t have a piece of chocolate with me this week, but we’ll find something else.”

Kim is in Las Vegas to defend his two Vegas titles. The tournament is scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, so Kim still has time to find another piece of chocolate.

Kim heads out Thursday at 12:18 p.m. with the two most recent PGA Tour winners, Matt McCarty and Kevin Yu. He's ready to tee off on arguably his favorite course in the world, at least the layout where he's had the most success. He hopes to become the first PGA Tour player to win the same tournament three times in a row since Steve Stricker won the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011.

“I think it's about taking advantage of the scoring opportunities. “There are a lot of birdies out there,” Kim said. “I have to choose when to attack. You could play the most boring round of 66 here. This is possible because good ball hitting is rewarded. The greens are so perfect that the balls stay on the line. I think that's why I was able to do well here because it's not the longest golf course. You have to find your way around. You can't just hit him anywhere with 180 ball speed. You have to hit it straight and that’s a strength of my game.”

Kim and the field will have a first-place check of $1.26 million, $260,000 more than that entire Prize money began in 1983, when the Las Vegas Panasonic Celebrity Golf Classic became the first million-dollar prize in PGA Tour history. Now, Kim said, the money involved is almost unimaginable.

But he is happy to be part of this generation.

“As players, the money we play for is something we can be very grateful for because everyone works to provide for someone and themselves,” Kim said. “Being a professional golfer and not only trying to achieve goals but also having the bonus to play for big prize money is very rewarding. I am very grateful to be part of this generation where the money we are playing for has now become overwhelming.”

That $1.26 million first-place check can buy a lot of chocolate. In Vegas or wherever.

Brian Hurlburt is the founder of www.LasVegasGolfInsider.com and can be understood @lasvegasgolfinsider on social media.