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Tour Championship: Sungjae Im Climbs Leaderboard on Saturday

By Tim Letcher

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 05: Sungjae Im of South Korea reacts to his missed eagle putt on the 18th green during the second round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on September 05, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 05: Sungjae Im of South Korea reacts to his missed eagle putt on the 18th green during the second round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on September 05, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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Sungjae Im is trying to upstage a lot of bigger names at the Tour Championship, and his 6-under par 64 on Saturday has him firmly in the mix.

The PGA Tour season was a tale of two halves for Sungjae Im. This week at the Tour Championship, Im is trying to tie a bow on what would be a career year for him.

Prior to the three-month break due to the coronavirus, Im was as good as anyone on tour. In fact, when the tour broke in March, there was no one hotter in the world than Im.

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He started March ranked in 12th in the FedEx Cup standings. He then won the Honda Classic and moved into third place in the standings. The following week, he was third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and he took over the lead in the FedEx Cup race.

From there, Im held the lead in those standings for three months, as time stood still in the golfing world. And as the tour returned with the Charles Schwab Challenge, Im tied for 10th and held his lead for another week.

However, at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, Im missed the cut and, in the process, he lost his lead in the FedEx Cup standings. Im would be in third place for the next two months before falling to fifth, where he would be when the postseason got underway.

But the postseason did not get off to a very good start. Im missed the cut at the Northern Trust, shooting even par over two rounds while others were going extremely low (remember, Scottie Scheffler shot 59 that week).

Last week at the BMW Championship was a bit better for Im. He placed in a tie for 56th, with still less than his best, but at least he had a slight bit of momentum heading into this week.

Im shot a 2-under par 68 on Friday to get the Tour Championship started, not a great round by any means, but he didn’t take himself out of contention on the first day.

On the second day, he firmly put himself into the mix. Im parred the first two holes before recording birdies on the third and fourth holes to get to 2-under on his round.

Im did not have many mistakes on the day, but he did bogey the fifth hole to slip back to 1-under. However, he would birdie number six to get that shot right back, and Im would par out to shoot a 2-under par 33 on his front side.

The back nine started with a birdie on the 10th hole, getting Im to 3-under. He would then par four holes in a row to remain at that score before closing on a hot streak.

Im would birdie the par-3 15th hole after sticking his tee shot about eight feet from the hole. On the par-4 16th hole, his approach shot left him about three feet, which he converted for another birdie, getting to 5-under on the day.

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He would par 17, then birdie the 18th to finish with a 6-under par 64. In the process, Im jumped from sixth to second, just one shot behind leader Dustin Johnson with two holes to play.

Im is firmly in the mix for his second career win and a huge boost to his young career.

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