It was during this first full year that Im got his a proper taste of life on the road in the States, playing every single regular season event except one – which he missed to play the US PGA Championship instead after he had received a special invitation upon breaking into the top 100 in the world rankings. Im then announced himself in his very first event with a four-shot win at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic, and a runner-up finish the following week at The Abaco Club cemented his status as a player with massive potential. In the autumn he made his way through the qualifying tournaments for the satellite Web.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) and earned himself 12 starts for 2018 thanks to his runner-up finish at the Final Stage. He was playing an event in Japan when he saw fellow countryman Si Woo Kim clinch that year’s Players Championship in Florida and decided to take the trip across the Pacific to the United States.
Sungjae im pro#
“Korean restaurants are not too far away and the Atlanta airport offers non-stop flights to nearly every tournament site, also a direct flight home to Korea.”Īfter turning pro in 2015 at the age of 17, Im quickly found success on the Japan Golf Tour in 2017. “I have practiced at TPC Sugarloaf before and the neighborhood there is clean and quiet,” he said. Im selected Atlanta for his base for ease of travel and the array of Korean food outlets near to his Duluth home. So I just decided to stay in the States.” The reason I did not go to Korea is there’s still a mandatory isolation required by the government there, and I didn’t want to go through that. “I spent my winter break in Atlanta and I practiced. “I’m just so happy to be on the PGA Tour and just to play golf, and it’s almost as if –I don’t really look at it as work, it’s more of a chance to just go out and do what I love and play golf,” said Im. This year he’s made a steady start and he’s pleased to be playing regularly again, looking to build some momentum ahead of this month’s Masters and the Majors that lie ahead. He was named rookie of the year on the PGA Tour in 2019 and won last year at PGA National in Florida before finishing in second place on debut at Augusta National in November. Im seldom takes a break on Tour, often playing runs of 5 or 6 weeks in succession, and his thorough work rate has seen him progress to becoming a Major contender after only a few years in America.
It’s been a largely non-stop journey of discovery for 22-year-old Sungjae Im and the young Korean has wasted no time in becoming one of the best players in the game.
He spent a couple of years leading a nomadic lifestyle living hotel-to-hotel with his parents in tow, but now he’s fully focused on becoming as good as he can be – and he’s always on the lookout for Korean restaurants that sell his favourite dish, the Jeju Black Pig… After arriving Stateside in late 2017, Im is already a winner at the highest level having won the 2020 Honda Classic and is now settled in Atlanta. A road warrior who rarely takes a week off, Im has become one of the most dependable players on Tour and finished runner-up in his Masters debut in November to break inside the top-20 in the world rankings. Last year, Korean starlet Sungjae Im played in all but six events on the PGA Tour’s schedule.
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