Porthcawl, Wales: Many were taken by surprise when Grace Kim joined the elite list of LPGA Major winners with her triumph at this month’s Amundi Evian Championship. Joanne McKee was not among them.

In a remarkable conclusion to the tournament in France, Australian Kim eagled the final hole in regulation to force her way into a play-off with Thai Atthaya ‘Jeeno’ Thitikul. She then secured the biggest victory of her career with a sensational birdie-eagle sequence.

Watching the drama unfold from her Hong Kong base, McKee was cheering for both players. She wanted both to win – and neither to lose.

Her neutral stance was quite understandable for McKee has taken special interest in the progress of Kim and Jeeno since they played under her captaincy in the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation’s (APGC) Patsy Hankins Trophy team that thrashed the European Golf Association in the inaugural Solheim Cup-style contest in Qatar in 2018.

McKee’s power packed APGC line-up that year also included Yuka Saso and Patty Tavatanakit, both of whom have, like Kim, already won Major championships in the professional game.

Watching the remarkable denouement at Evian, the connection that Kim and Jeeno forged seven years ago was clear to McKee.

She said: “Grace had a magnificent finish. I felt for Jeeno, but Grace was so deserving of the trophy. Watching Jeeno and Grace (at Evian), you could see they had a special friendship, and respect for each other. They chatted a lot and looked very comfortable playing in the same flight. I’m sure this was from their Patsy Hankins experience.

“Grace was a delight to have on our team, very easy-going, friendly, and outgoing with everyone and easy to partner with anyone. Grace had a great partnership with Patty Tavatanakit and they formed a tight friendship. Meanwhile, Jeeno and Yuka Saso were inseparable.

“On the golf course, Grace had a stunning short game. She was mentally strong, competitive and gave it her all. She was a fun person to be around and a very supportive team member. She kind of brought the team together because some players were shy, some young, there were language barriers. There was just an easiness about her that she could connect with everyone.”

While Kim’s character and characteristics have essentially remained the same, she admits that it will take time to get used to the words ‘Major champion’ appearing in front of her name.

In her bid for back-to-back Major titles at Royal Porthcawl this week in the AIG Women’s Open, the now 24-year-old has been re-watching footage from her Evian success in the hope it might start to sink in.

Kim said: “I watched the videos again last night. I think it’s really nice to be able to go through the footage. Just to kind of sink in is still in the process. It’s probably not going to sink in a lot.

“I don’t think it has changed (her life) all that much. Obviously, people coming up to you and saying congratulations is really nice. But at the same time, when people put the two words ‘Major champion’ in front, it’s still quite hard to believe. I mean, I’m still the same me. So, nothing much has changed.

“This week is already a big one. It’s the last Major of our season. I’m going to try and carry on the mentality that I had, which was just worry-free. I know my game’s good enough. Our team’s put in a lot of effort, my own game, physical, everything behind the scenes. Hopefully, we can just showcase that.”

Kim will tee off with Canadian Brooke Henderson and China’s Yin Ruoning at 8:09 am (local time) today.

While she’s confident her game is suited to a links golf setting, Kim is not placing too much stock in this week's weather forecast.

She said: “I think it’s quite pointless to look at a forecast in the UK because it’s always wrong. I just expect the worst and hope for the best, to be honest. Hopefully we’ll get the best.

“I think just knowing that my game is there and good enough, just mentally preparing [for] whatever could happen; the wind could happen, the wind direction could change, rain can happen. (I’ll be) trying to stay as calm as I can out here.

“I think it’s a fair test. This golf course, when the wind does pick up, you’ve got some really tough into-wind holes. I think I had three holes where I hit three-wood just short of the green. But then you’ve got holes that blow downwind and [there are] very gettable par-fives. I think it’s a pretty fair test.”