There are two ways for a South Korean golfer to get an exemption from the military service that is otherwise mandatory for male citizens between ages 18 and 35. You can win an Olympic medal, or you can take gold in the individual or team event at the Asian Games. This week in Japan, Tom Kim is attempting the latter, and after two rounds at the Kasugai Country Club East Course, he's exactly where he stood at the end of Round 1: Two shots off the lead, now held by both Wenyi Ding and Wei-hsuan Wang. Kim shot 66 in the second round, and as a team the Koreans are in solo third at a collective 14 under, trailing the leaders Japan by just two shots. As Tod Leonard covered here at Digest, the stakes are high—compulsory military service takes between 18 and 21 months, time for practicing golf is scarce, and players like Sangmoon Bae were never quite the same after serving. At 24, Kim could have another shot at the 2028 Olympics or the 2023 Asian Games, but even that is uncertain, as Bae had to begin his service at age 29. Two rounds remain at this year's Asian Games.

Starting Saturday, the 51st Walker Cup will kick off at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland, and the home team, Great Britain & Ireland, will be trying to win for the first time since 2015. Earlier, our Jamie Kennedy explored whether the Irish course will give them the advantage they need, but now they seem to have a new ally: A stomach bug. According to Golf Channel's Brentley Romine, illness kept two American players from practicing on Thursday, Oklahoma State's Ethan Fang and Alabama's William Jennings. The U.S. captain, Nathan Smith, said they're "good to go," but then again, that's what you would say, isn't it? As Romine noted, this seems to be a common theme: a stomach bug hit 16 different players at the 2021 Walker Cup, requiring alternates to swap in, and some players had to visit the ER. And at the Rome Ryder Cup in 2023, members of the American team contracted a mysterious illness before enduring a thumping from Europe. Hopefully, for the sake of competition, everybody will be ready to play at Lahinch on Saturday, but now the Americans have a built-in excuse if things go wrong for the first time in a decade.

Folks, we don't mean to shock you out of your senses before the weekend, but a player on the PGA Tour just sprayed the hell out of his tee shot, it ended up in a pizza tent and—I hope you're sitting down—it was not Jordan Spieth. The player was Jacob Bridgeman, it happened on the 18th hole, and you can tell it wasn't Spieth because instead of playing the ball from under the counter and making a miracle par, Bridgeman took the drop and made bogey. He finished at 5 under, and sits at T-14 after 36 holes in Atlanta. You can watch the result in the tweet below, but first, I am contractually obligated to say the following: Now that's what I call a slice!