Avocados and a young Australian making good money are not supposed to go together.

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But Grace Kim does things her own way.

The 23-year-old LPGA player has made a mark on women’s golf’s premier tour almost as much for her bubbly personality as for her impressive results.

Kim will tee it up in the LPGA’s Tour Championship for the second consecutive year in Florida on Friday morning Australian time buoyed by the cult following she has gathered from her affection for the fruit which goes well on toast.

“I just like avocados. I like eating them and the emoji,” she said with a laugh.

“So instead of having my name or initials on my golf ball, I’m at a level where I can design my own golf ball, and I put an avocado emoji on my golf ball.”

Avocado mania truly began at the spiritual home of golf during this year’s Women’s Open Championship.

Fans of Kim’s greeted her at St Andrews with a sign that said, ‘Go Gracie’ and ‘Go Avocado’, and things took off from there.

“I’ve been given key rings as gifts to put on my bag and this couple rocked up, and said ‘go avocado power’ or something like that,” Kim recalled.

“It’s really cute and wholesome.”

Kim is not only gaining fans for her love of avocados, however.

The Sydneysider is in her second season on the LPGA and has registered three top ten finishes for the year.

She turned professional three years ago after a stellar amateur career that included winning gold at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina as well claiming the Australian Junior and Australian Amateur titles.

Kim has taken to professional life like a duck to water as it only took one season on the secondary Epson Tour to earn promotion to the LPGA as her consistency has held her in good stead.

Wild fluctuations are not typically part of her game as she has made the cut in 21 of the 27 events she has played so far this season to keep the money rolling in, and to sit 46th on the money list heading into the season-ending tournament.

She has banked roughly $1.1 million for the year after taking home more than $1.4 million last year with an impressive debut LPGA season that included a breakthrough victory at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii which came with a prize check of almost $500,000.

A self-confessed “shopaholic”, Kim bought herself a ring with the date of the triumph – 12 April 2023 – engraved on it, and she admitted that since she has stepped into the bright lights of the United States, the prize purses can weigh on your mind.

“It’s nuts to think about. You miss a putt and it’s hard not to think about the money you just blew off,” she said.

“But it doesn’t matter to me as much anymore. It’s more about my composure and how I play on the golf course, and money is after.”

What has been on Kim’s mind this year is her fitness.

In recent years, she has been on the wrong side of several heartbreaking moments.

She was beaten in a playoff in Michigan earlier this year after starting the final round with a five-shot lead, while two years ago she had a chance at winning the Australian Open but she took two out of a fairway bunker and three-putted at the final hole to blow her hopes with a double bogey.

Those near misses would lead to many golfers digging deep into the psyche for the solution, but Kim insists her issues were all physical rather than mental.

“What we learned last year as a rookie was that physically I wasn’t lasting very well throughout the whole year. Being a pretty lean person, I fatigue quite easily,” she said.

“I also sometimes don’t have the accountability to properly look after myself. I just want to be a couch potato most of the time. I needed someone to push me.”

To get that push, Kim brought on board osteopath Aaron Bond who travels on the LPGA full-time from ‘Osteo on Course’ – three osteopaths from Melbourne who look after most of the tour’s Australian contingent with Kim, Steph Kyriacou, Hannah Green and Minjee Lee all on their books.

As well as dealing with recovery and any niggles, Bond is responsible for looking after Kim in the gym.

She and her fellow Australians regularly hit the gym together as they travel across the United States.

What makes the training regime more impressive is that Kim does not have a permanent home in America yet.

She intends to buy in Dallas but spends time at the Golf Australia house in Florida when she is not on the road.

Her schedule often means using a hotel gym or finding somewhere nearby her Airbnb for the week to train.

“This year I’ve definitely been more consistent off the golf course. I’ve been in a routine of making sure I go to the gym, even during tournament weeks,” she said.

“I’m not really a gym lover. Aaron’s trying to change that for me. Generally, there’s one hard session, one medium and one light one. The hard ones are generally at the start of the week, so Mondays seem worse than they normally are.

“We try to get it done (even straight after a tournament) and I’m not the only one that’s doing that. A lot of the girls on tour are. It involves squats and deadlifts. It’s definitely different to what I’m used to, but you’ve got to get to done if you want to be the best in the world.”

The coming weeks will be a brilliant test of the impact of that work.

Kim will fly straight to Melbourne for the Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria golf clubs from the LPGA finale in Florida.

That schedule makes for a gruelling two weeks, but she is determined to become the first Australian since seven-time major champion Karrie Webb in 2014 to win the national open.

“It would be a lie if I said I don’t feel pressured or nervous, but it’s always a privilege so I make sure that comes first,” she said.

“Obviously, a lot of people are going to come watch the best Aussies and internationals so I’m super excited and cannot wait to be back home soon.”

When she returns to Sydney, Kim also has some business to take care of at her home club, Avondale Golf Club.

She managed to go home for eight days before the LPGA’s Asian Swing in October and bettered the likes of PGA Tour of Australasia player James Grierson in money matches at Avondale.

Grierson and others are keen for a rematch.

“I’ve got a couple of members I’d like to play with, and a couple of money matches I’d like to play with the boys as well,” she said.

“I played with James while I was home and won a pineapple off him. So that was nice.

“I just like stealing money off them. They’re always like ‘you’re playing on the LPGA, what more money do you want from us?’, but I buy them food afterwards.”