Kim made good on a Saturday 62 with a closing 66, holding off Adam Hadwin by one shot en route to defending his title at the Shriners Children’s Open.

“It’s very sweet,” Kim said on Sunday evening. “I feel like the first two wins came at me really quick. It took a lot longer than my first two wins to get my third one. But it’s very sweet. This is really for the team. I’ve worked really hard personally, but without their help, I would not even be close to getting my third win.”

Kim came to prominence last summer when he shot a final-round 61—and overcame a quadruple-bogey 8 on his first hole—to capture the Wyndham Championship at age 20 by five shots. The South Korean went from a promising player to a potential star, however, with his performance at the Presidents Cup. His recklessly entertaining play was matched by an energy that can best be described as a golden retriever on Red Bull. For arguably the first time in its existence, the Presidents Cup provided a moment (or perhaps it was the player that gave the event a moment). Whatever the case, while the list of Hall-of-Fame international players is long, the list of those who have resonated with an American audience is short … if even a list at all. Kim’s display at Quail Hollow showed he had the game and personality to assume that mantle, with a win just weeks later at the 2022 Shriners.

And since his Sin City win, Kim has played well. Entering the week he had 10 finishes of T-11 or better over the past year, a stretch highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Open Championship. Conversely, the story of the past season in golf could be told without Kim. That’s not a shot at him or what he’s done or where he could go; the man has only been legally able to drink in this country for three months, after all. But given his fast ascent, coupled with golf’s inclination to facilitate the occasional hot stretch before turning its back on the said recipient, Kim had slightly faded into the background as the sport winds down and heads into 2024. Even as this tournament’s defending champ, playing despite already locking up his top-50 status for next year, Kim’s participation this week felt like a miscellaneous note to the headline of Lexi Thompson’s sponsor’s exemption and ensuing play. That may seem unfair to Kim and perhaps it was, yet with expectations come impossibly high standards and responsibility. That is the price of stardom.

“I think those two wins, I wasn’t really … I was playing my game,” Kim said. “I wasn’t thinking about, OK, I need to win this event, I need to do this. No, I played and it happened. It happened very naturally. It happened very quickly. I think by the end of last year, two wins on the PGA Tour all of a sudden, ranked 13th in the world. Suddenly you feel like you’re right there and you need to do something extra or something. But it really wasn’t. I felt like I almost added a lot of pressure towards myself to perform really well this year. But really it’s been a very big learning curve for me, and it’s very humbling to be able to experience what I’ve experienced this year.”

Then the weekend came, and Kim turned in a nine-under 62 during the third round at TPC Summerlin, giving him a share of the lead with Hadwin and Lanto Griffin. But with 14 players within three of the lead, Sunday promised a horse race. Out of the gate, Kim tried his best to end it early with three birdies on his first four holes, but back-to-back bogeys at the fifth and sixth kept the rest of the pack close. An early 62 from Eric Cole put the former journeyman at 18 under, a number that was matched by a handful of others that seemed to be the number to beat. Kim crossed that threshold at the 13th and appeared to secure the tournament at the drivable par-4 15th. Kim sprayed his drive to the right and his second just cleared a greenside bunker, but he cleaned up the remaining 12 feet for birdie just seconds after Hadwin’s eagle try lipped out. Though maintaining a one-shot lead over Hadwin did not seem imperative at the moment it made what happened next all the more decisive.

At the par-5 16th, Kim hit his approach first and landed his second safely on the green. Hadwin could not say the same. The Canadian could not hold his follow-through, his arms falling to his side and his head pointed towards the ground, unable to watch his ball and hopes disappear into a pond.

“It was like 193 front, 206 pin. It really honestly was just a perfect little cut 6 [iron],” Hadwin said. “The ball still covers the front edge as long as it’s up the centre of the green, and I completely whiffed it, up and out of it, and unfortunately one of my worst swings of the day at the least opportune time.”

Hadwin managed to hit his next shot close but could not convert the save; on a hole where he desperately needed a 4 or a 3 he walked away with 6. A score that proved an especially tough swallow after Kim three-putted for par. Kim played the 17th and 18th without incident, and Hadwin’s birdie at the 18th came after the issue was no longer in doubt. Kim was a winner once more.

“It was pretty intense really. It was just me and Adam, and I feel like it was almost match play once we got past 14,” Kim said. “It was just him and me. It was whether I wanted it or he wants it, and we both just see what happens. It was probably the most emotional final round I’ve experienced win-wise the last year and a half.”

With his win, Kim accomplished a rare feat. Since the new FedEx Cup Fall is an extension of the 2022-’23 season, Kim became the first player since Byron Nelson in 1944 to win the same event in the same campaign. He also became the youngest player in more than 110 years to defend a PGA Tour-recognised title. “Yeah, for sure,” Kim said when asked if he’s coming back next fall. “Three-peat sounds nice.”

Of course, the week itself was a pretty rare thing, too: Leaving Las Vegas a winner. And perhaps a week that moves Kim back to the forefront of the game as the calendar turns, particularly into a Presidents Cup season. That’s because Tom Kim is proving the game he plays is not a game of chance, but a game of skill. There are no sure things in golf, but the prospects of who is becoming and where he can go? Those are far from unfounded hopes.

Main image: Orlando Ramirez

The post Tom Kim wins title defence at Shriners, and does something that hasn’t been done in 110 years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Count Isaiah Salinda among those with the longest odds when he teed it up as one of the Monday qualifiers for this week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. The 26-year-old South San Francisco native and Stanford alum only had eight previous starts on the PGA Tour. He made the cut in half of them, and with full-time status this past season on the Korn Ferry Tour, Salinda notched just one top-10 and missed seven of the last eight cuts in a total of 21 starts.

Yet, in his new hometown, at the TPC Summerlin golf course he’s played frequently, Salinda has a shot at producing a life-changing result come Sunday. With a nine-birdie eight-under-par 63 in Saturday’s third round, Salinda climbed to 13-under for the tournament and is two strokes behind the leaders — defending champion Tom Kim (62), Adam Hadwin (63) and Lanto Griffin (68).

Salinda’s 63 was one shot better than his KFT season-best of 64 in the 64 rounds he played. His single-biggest pay cheque on the PGA Tour and KFT is $34,415, and Salida could earn at least $228,900 with a 10th-place finish this week.

“We all kind of play for the same reasons, to have a chance,” Salinda said. “We’ll see how that holds up. A lot of groups still to come in, but yeah, it’s just a good round that I hope to build on [Sunday].”

Of his third round on a perfect day to go low at Summerlin, Salinda said, “The birdies were flying.” He moved to Las Vegas in the past year and has practised frequently with other pros at Summerlin, and his local knowledge showed as Salinda birdied the first two holes, made another birdie at 7 and turned in 32. His assault of the course truly began at 10, with four consecutive birdies, followed by two more at 15 and 16. The run included making a 54-foot birdie on the par-5 13th and a 66-footer at 15. Unfortunately, he closed the round with a bogey at the 18th.

“Tee to green was solid,” Salinda said. “I felt like I didn’t even hit it great, but I gave myself a lot of chances.”

Salinda’s world ranking, at 652nd, would indicate he’s yet to find his feet as a pro, but he’s not without golf accomplishments. In 2019, after he helped Stanford win the NCAA Championship, Salinda he was selected to the Walker Cup team, and in the US win at Royal Liverpool, Salinda beat Alex Fitzpatrick, the brother of US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, 2-up in the Sunday singles. The previous year, Salinda captured the prestigious Pacific Coast Amateur and reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur at Pebble Beach, where he lost to Devon Bling in the championship eventually won by Viktor Hovland.

Those are experiences to lean on, though Salinda has never been in a position close to this.

“I think there’s always a little more pressure playing out here,” he said. “On the weekend, I feel like you’re playing a little bit more, but just try and treat it the same.”

Main image: PGA Tour

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With just five holes remaining on Friday, however, Thompson seemed on the verge of adding her name to a much shorter list of women who made the cut. The ledger included just one golfer — the legendary multi-sport athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who made two cuts in 1945. But with play continuing on Friday afternoon at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Thompson was going to fall short after making bogeys on two par 3s — her 14th and 17th holes.

Thompson, 28, finished with a two-under-par 69, good for an even-par total after an opening 73, and when she tapped in for par on 18, the projected cut line remained where it had been most of the morning, at one-under. Less than an hour later, it moved to two-under, meaning Thompson was all but eliminated.

“I knew the cut line would keep on going lower and lower with these guys, especially with not that much wind out there,” Thompson said after her round. “I would say the biggest challenge was … probably just some of the pin locations. They tuck them very close to the edges to where you have to hit high shots and carry it and be able to stop it within two bunkers or a narrow part of the green. … I don’t get it as far down as the guys, so I have a little bit longer of a shot.”

Thompson’s parents greeted her on the 18th green, and a few minutes later, she took pride in the bigger picture.

“It’s an amazing feeling … just to be able to come here and follow my dreams,” she said. “It’s something I wanted to do, playing against my brothers growing up, all the guys are so welcoming, so I’m very grateful for that. But the biggest thing was being out there and seeing the kids and meeting some of the Shriners kids as well. That’s what it’s all about.”

If she fell achingly short of her on-course goals, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Thompson began her second round on the back nine, made bogey on 10, but quickly rebounded with a terrific approach on 11 from 152 yards that set up an easy birdie.

Right at it ?@Lexi sets herself up for birdie on No. 11 @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/5FA8gKgcIS

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

On the par-5 13th, she followed up a 314-yard drive with a second shot that came to rest in the fringe, leading to a two-putt birdie. Two holes later, on the 296-yard par-4 15th, she unleashed the power that saw her gain nearly a stroke over the rest of the field off the tee in the opening wave on Friday and drove on to the green.

She’s got the ?????!@Lexi drives the green on the 296-yard par-4 15th @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/3CFrK7MrKQ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

Another two-putt birdie moved her to two-under on the day, and she rounded out her opening nine with a trio of stress-free pars. The peak of Thompson’s round came as the made the turn, when she poured in her longest putt of the day to that point at No. 1, a 23-footer that moved her to one-under.

A hole later, the putter stayed hot, and she drained a 28-foot birdie that, when it fell, put Thompson at two-under and gave her a legitimate chance to play par golf down the stretch and make the cut.

Back-to-back birdies for @Lexi!

She moves to 2-under and one shot inside the cutline @ShrinersOpen. pic.twitter.com/Z8kR9bfPX1

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2023

After two more pars, though, Thompson pushed her tee shot on the long par-3 fifth hole far to the right and was forced to take a penalty. She recovered impressively, hitting her third after a drop to five feet and saving bogey. But on eight, the next par 3, her tee shot ran through the green and she left her chip 11 feet short. (It’s possible she would have putted the ball if not for a sprinkler head in her path.) Thompson missed the par putt to fall back to even for the tournament, and while she gave herself a shot to reach one-under at the par-5 ninth, she couldn’t convert her six-foot birdie effort.

“I knew that this golf course can play very firm and that the greens could get super bouncy, so I was expecting that,” Thompson said. “But I had to play — even with wedges — play for about five to seven feet of bounce-out, and that’s not normal coming from a Florida golfer. It was something to get used to.”

“It was fun to watch,” said her playing partner Trevor Werbylo. “We were kind of rooting for her the last few holes to maybe make a birdie or two to make the cut, but it was fun. She was great, her game was great, and the crowd was awesome.”

A chorus of other players praised Thompson’s effort on Friday, including Cameron Champ, who held the lead at 12-under when Thompson finished.

“It’s a lot longer, probably slightly different conditions than what they play on,” Champ said. “And, yeah, I just think for the women’s game, it just inspires those other young girls that are watching her just to help grow the game in women’s golf. Definitely think it’s huge.”

Thompson admitted she became emotional at times with the sheer outpouring of support from the gallery.

“It’s the best feeling, just seeing the amount of kids that were out there screaming, ‘Lexi, Lexi, go Lexi!'” she said. “It makes me tear up sometimes, because that’s what I play for, to inspire these little kids, boys or girls, to just get a club in their hand and follow their dreams, whether it’s golf or anything in life.

“I’m tired,” Thompson added, summing up her physical state. “My body is definitely feeling it, but knowing me I’ll probably go to the gym this afternoon.”

Main image: Orlando Ramirez

The post Lexi Thompson flirts with history, but comes up short of making PGA Tour cut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“Yes, good golf is a successful week,” Thompson, 28, said in a press conference. But, she added: “If I can leave here inspiring others, and especially the kids, the Shriners kids, that’s what it’s all about and what this tournament is. There is more than just playing golf.”

Thompson, an 11-time winner on the LPGA, received the invite from the Shriners in late September and said on Tuesday that playing in a PGA Tour event “means the world to me.”

Predictably, she and the tournament organisers faced some backlash for taking a spot in the field from a male player who could use the opportunity to further his earnings in the autumn events that are critical to players attempting to re-earn their PGA Tour cards for next season. Veteran Peter Malnati, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, initially reacted by calling Thompson’s inclusion a “gimmick.” But he back peddled on those comments later, adding: “I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know that having Lexi play is a gimmick, but I don’t think the tournaments are going to have to go to those kind of lengths to drum up interest and get storylines that they can sell because I think these events are actually going to have a lot of meaning.”

Asked about her reaction to the comments, Thompson said: “No reaction. I knew some comments were going to happen with anything. Like I said, I’m out here playing of course with the men, but I want to leave a message just to the kids that I’m following my dreams and to go after what you want with a positive mindset and don’t let anybody’s comments or reaction get in the way of that.

“But it’s all good,” she added with a smile. “I mean, I expected it.”

The invite may be controversial, but its place in history is noteworthy. Six women have preceded Thompson in teeing it up against the men — the last being Brittany Lincicome on a sponsor’s invite in the 2018 Barbasol Championship. Lincicome missed the cut, though she shot 71 in the second round to join Michelle Wie West as the only women to break par in a PGA Tour event. Wie West holds the record of eight starts against the men, but she never reached the weekend. The only woman to make the cut is Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who pulled it off twice in 1945.

Those who followed Zaharias in playing against the men were Shirley Spork, Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley, Wie West and Lincicome.

Thompson, who struggled badly for much of the LPGA season but is coming off resurgent play in which she went 3-1-0 in the Solheim Cup and finished solo fifth last week in Texas, faces long odds to make the weekend in Las Vegas. Last year, the cut came at four-under par at TPC Summerlin, which is listed at 7,225 yards — or about 700 yards longer than Old American Golf Club was set up in last week’s LPGA Ascendent.

Though Thompson is among the longest hitters on the LPGA, ranking 12th in driving distance at 270 yards, there are six par 4s at Summerlin that measure more than 440 yards and two that are longer than 460. (One par 5 is listed at 606.) That will put a lot of long irons and fairway woods in her hands.

Still, Thompson said she is relishing the opportunity to “bomb driver everywhere”.

“The last few weeks I didn’t hit too many drivers, but you still have to hit the golf shots on the LPGA Tour,” Thompson said. “It’s just I don’t get to take advantage of sometimes my length on a few of those holes.

“Here, it’s driver on every hole, and I definitely like that. Fire away and swing, get the most distance I can on a few of those holes.”

On Tuesday, Thompson played in a practice round with Michael Kim and Ben Griffin, and both came away impressed.

“I thought she’s hitting it great,” Kim said on the LPGA’s Instagram account. “This course is probably a little longer than she’s used to, but I thought she was hitting it well.”

Added Griffin: “She was striping it. She was hitting it closer than us on a few holes. That’s to be expected. She has a ton of talent. She can handle it out there. Being firmer conditions, it’s a little different, but I think she’s adjusting well. She played awesome today and I think she can compete this week and have a chance to at least make it to the weekend.”

In his interview last week, Malnati said what many are probably thinking about Thompson’s appearance: “Who knows what’ll happen; she may go play really well, and it’ll be huge. She may play absolutely terrible and finish 132nd.”

At least for Thompson, the results seem hardly the point.

“If I can inspire one individual, I would feel like I’m making progress,” she said. “Of course, yes, I want to play good. That’s a whole other story. There is more to life than performing well. That’s what I want to do, inspire others.”

Main image: Lexi Thompson. Richard Heathcote

The post In face of controversial PGA Tour invite, Solheim Cup star Lexi Thompson playing for more than just a score appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Tied after 54 holes in the Shriners Children’s Open, the two men had their own duel in the sun and found themselves still tied through 17 holes of the final round. Something was going to have to give. Or someone.
And that someone was not Tom Kim.

Solid to the very end, Kim capped a bogey-free week with a routine two-putt par on the 18th hole and etched his name in the game’s annals as the second-youngest two-time winner in PGA Tour history. He wound up beating Cantlay by three after the world’s fourth-ranked player inexplicably hooked, hacked and drowned his golf ball to close with a shocking triple bogey.

Only player to win twice on TOUR before his 21st birthday since…. pic.twitter.com/U2gjeJCoOQ

— Skratch (@Skratch) October 10, 2022

But make no mistake, Kim, 20, wasn’t handed his second victory in his last four tour starts. A final-round five-under 66 while entangled in a head-to-head duel with the 2021 PGA Tour Player of the Year was a performance worthy of the trophy and $1.44 million prize. He stared down an opponent who already owned a victory and two runner-up finishes in the event and who twice rallied from two-stroke deficits on the inward nine until hitting the Vegas jackpot on the home hole.

Kim completed 72 holes in 24-under 260, tying the tournament record after the layout was converted to par-71 in 2009, and became the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to win twice on tour before age 21.

“It’s really amazing. A few months ago, I didn’t have any status in the US, and now being a two-time winner on tour, having that place with Tiger, it’s an unbelievable feeling for me,” said Kim, who began the week feeling under the weather and had never before seen TPC Summerlin. “It’s an honour for me, and it’s definitely a dream come true.”

Only Ralph Guldahl was younger than Kim, by less than a month, when he won his second tour title in 1932 at the Arizona Open. Kim, at 20 years, three months and 18 days, moved past the likes of not only Woods but Gene Sarazen, Horton Smith and Tom Creavy among players in their 20s with multiple victories. He registered his first win in August at the Wyndham Championship, the last regular-season event of the 2021-22 campaign.

Tournament leader in strokes gained/off the tee, Cantlay had the honour on the final hole after consecutive birdies at 15 and 16 erased Kim’s second two-stroke lead of the day. Cantlay chose a fairway metal and hooked his tee shot into the desert scrub. He found his ball lodged under a bush and he barely moved it while attempting to hack it back into the fairway. After a drop, Cantlay put his fourth shot into the water guarding the front of the green. He saved a triple-bogey by dropping a 36-foot putt.

Kim, who also matched Cantlay splendidly in exhibiting a dispassionate day-long poker face, used the opening to split the fairway with a 315-yard dart. He then played safely to the right of the pin before a routine two-putt from 52 feet closed the deal.

“When you have a two-shot lead and you have a guy like Patrick coming at you, no lead is safe,” Kim said of the showdown with the eight-time tour winner. “I just told myself, well, we have a game plan. I was really grateful that [caddie] Joe [Skovron] was beside me with the experience he has, and he really helped me through this week. I just stayed really patient … and I just got really lucky on the final hole. Patrick has played so good this week, and I got really fortunate.”

Kim never trailed throughout the day and took his first outright lead with a seven-foot birdie at the fourth hole. The lead was two at the turn with a 30-footer at the eighth followed by matching birdies with Cantlay at the par-5 ninth. The inward nine was a story of punch and counter-punch as Cantlay birdied 11 and 12 to tie it only to see Kim respond in kind at the next two holes. Then back came Cantlay one last time with two-putt birdies at 15 and 16.

Cantlay, 30, made no excuses for his poor finish, dismissing the notion he was unlucky to find his tee ball in a bush and then being unable to move it for his second stroke. “Yeah, not too unlucky. I made bad swing, and it went where it went,” he said after his 69 left him tied for second at 263 with Matthew NeSmith, who shot 66. “After it was kind of in the bush there, I figured the only chance I had to stay in the tournament was to try to get it back in the fairway. Obviously, I couldn’t get it back in the fairway.

“I played well all week for the most part. One bad swing at the end,” Cantlay added. “Would have liked to have closed the deal out today, but sometimes that’s golf. All in all, it was a good week, and I played a lot of solid shots. Obviously, the last hole makes the whole week kind of sour.”

It wasn’t the first time Kim has got the better of Cantlay. Just two weeks ago at the Presidents Cup, Kim sank a 10-footer for birdie on the 18th hole at Quail Hollow Club to give him and countryman Si Woo Kim a 1-up four-ball victory over Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

A wild-card pick by International captain Trevor Immelman, Kim said exposure to the pressures of his first Presidents Cup came in handy during the tense final round.

“I just had to really focus on my own game, and I feel like the experience from the Presidents Cup … it could have been match play, but I didn’t really think of it that way because really, on this golf course, there’s a lot of low scores, and anyone who plays well will have a chance,” he explained. “I just told myself, stick with the game plan. Whether I win or not, as long as I execute my shots and do what I need to do, that’s all I focused on, and I’m just grateful to be on top.”

Naturally, he felt on top of the world, too. “Coming off a win, the [FedEx Cup] playoffs, the Presidents Cup and a win this week is … I mean, it’s absolutely amazing,” Kim said. “I’ve just got to keep going, and I’m enjoying the ride, so hopefully many more to come.”

Is there any doubt there won’t be more?

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Cantlay just missed recording the 13th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history when his left-to-right 24-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole stayed left of the cup. Instead, he settled for his second 60 in his tour career and enters the final round in Las Vegas tied with Presidents Cup rival Tom Kim at 19-under. Kim, who electrified the International team at the recent Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club, shot 62 and will vie for his second tour win in his last four starts.

“I hit good putts all day today. You can’t make every single one as much as you’d like to. I’m very happy with how I played, and I’m in a good spot going into [Sunday],” said Cantlay, 30, who won the first of his eight tour titles in the same event in 2017. In his three other career starts in Vegas, Cantlay has finished runner-up twice and in 2020 he shared the third-round lead with Martin Laird before a closing 73 dropped him to T-8.

Cantlay’s bogey-free round was a thing of beauty. He converted 11 birdies, hit 12 of 14 fairways, led the field in strokes gained/off the tee at plus-1.560, found 17 greens in regulation, and his approaches averaged 30 feet from the hole, third best in the field.

Overall, the field faced ideal scoring conditions on the par-71 TPC Summerlin that measures 7,255 yards. The scoring average on the day was 67.870. Of the 77 players to make the cut, 72 shot par or better and 56 rounds were in the 60s.

“All in all, I played real good today — and needed to get into position to win this tournament,” said Cantlay, who’s ranked fourth in the world. “I hit the ball really well and had a bunch of looks and made most of them.

“I had a bunch of wedges, and you get a bunch of good numbers, and I was pretty dialled in. I hit my numbers a lot better today than I did the first two days.”

It was the second time he came up a stroke shy of a round in the 50s. As an amateur in 2011, Cantlay fired a 60 in the second round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands after he birdied the final hole. He never has shot a sub-60 round in his life, not even in a casual round.

Scottie Scheffler recorded the last sub-60 score in 2020 when he posted 59 in the second round of The Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

Asked why he plays well repeatedly at TPC Summerlin, Cantlay said that he relies on his driver and plays aggressively. He figures he’ll need the same game plan on Sunday.

“It’s going to take a low one again,” he said. “This golf course yields low scores, and I expect the same tomorrow. Everyone will be gunning for me, and I’ve got to shoot a low one.”

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The South Korean found himself playing his second shot on the par-4 third hole at TPC Summerlin from the dreaded “native area” during the opening round of the Shriners Children’s Open. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that he faced a blind, uphill shot from 163 yards that needed to be elevated quickly with several large rocks and a cart path directly in front of him.

But none of that stopped Sungjae from pulling off a spectacular highlight. Have a look:

How?! ?

INSANE approach by Sungjae from the native area. pic.twitter.com/Xz8lWkByKO

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 6, 2022

Anyway, it’s too bad Im’s ball didn’t find the hole for an eagle, but he happily tapped in for birdie to get to red figures as he begins his title defence. And if he does win again, they should put a plaque in that native area spot.

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The post WATCH: Sungjae Im may have already pulled off the recovery shot of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Defeatists think it is a town built on broken dreams, false promises and unfounded hope. Optimists see it as a city of second chances where the unbelievable is routine. Realists understand these views are not mutually exclusive and, often, are one in the same. So while the sport may be lamenting a missed chance at witnessing Matthew Wolff complete a return from the abyss, it did watch—in local parlance—a heater as bright as Las Vegas Boulevard.

Riding a wave that delivered nine birdies in his first 13 holes Sunday afternoon, Sungjae Im dispatched with the field at TPC Summerlin, a flex his opponents had no answer for, and for that Im leaves as the Shriners Children’s Open champ.

“​​It was hard coming, but I think today, how everything went, I think it was a gift from above,” Im said afterwards. “I played so well, and I’m glad I got the win.”

This was not a tale of providence, of bad breaks and good luck. Those terms have no place in a performance where Im turned a three-shot deficit into a five-shot advantage. No, this was a showcase so thorough and strong it warrants residency on the Strip. That may seem like hyperbole considering Im is far from a showman (the opposite, in fact). Lower his ballcap ever so slightly and give the man a pair of sunglasses and he’d be a ringer for a high-stakes poker player, undisturbed by what is in front of him and concerned only by the command he follows within. In an era when players are allowed, even encouraged, to be more colourful, Im lets his game do the demonstration.

In the final round, that demonstration started with a 30-footer for 3 at Summerlin’s opening par-4 first. He missed a makeable eight-footer for bird at the second, but atoned with a birdie from the same distance at the fourth. He then added three more birdies at the sixth, seventh and ninth to make the turn in 30. Most tournaments that is a score that would send reverberations through the course.

But this is a TPC, where birdies aren’t so much currency as they are travel permits. Marc Leishman posted an opening 30 earlier, with Rory Sabbatini, aka the Silver Slovak, hanging a 28 on the board through nine holes. There was also Wolff, the wunderkind who has experienced a great wandering of sorts throughout 2021, who was in the final group and just two shots behind Im with a stretch of gettable holes before him. It had all the trappings of a shootout.

Except Im proved the only one to keep firing on the back nine. He rolled in a 20-footer at the 10th and a pair of 10-footers at the 11th and 12th. He tapped in a two-footer at the par-5 13th for his fifth straight birdie and ninth of the afternoon. It wasn’t flashly as it was steadily fierce.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t even know that I birdied five holes in a row,” Im said. “I was just constantly focused each and every single hole to get through it without a mistake.”

Ahead, Leishman sliced his tee shot on the drivable par-4 15th and put his approach at the par-5 16th in a pond. For all his moves on the front, Sabbatini was stuck in neutral on the back, making one bogey against one bird to stay put.

Alex Goodlett

As for Wolff, he briefly held a share of the lead after a birdie at the sixth and a scrambling birdie at the par-5 ninth. It was this tournament last year that Wolff fell short in a playoff just weeks after he became the youngest player in U.S. Open history to hold the 54-hole lead, ultimately finishing in runner-up at Winged Foot. Golf can be overzealous with its rising stars, but Wolff’s game was backing those expectations up, expectations he did not downplay.

But then there were a couple WDs and poor showings and a DQ at the Masters and puzzling displays, leading to an unannounced sabbatical that became public when he decided to skip the PGA Championship in May. As Wolff later explained, the lack of socialization on tour was impacting his mental health, which was impacting his performance. (Maybe his performance was also impacting his mental health.) So Wolff decided the best way to take care of both was to do it out of the spotlight. He returned at Torrey Pines in June but hasn’t been a true weekend factor since Vegas. And now he was on the precipice of something special.

If this was Hollywood, that would have been the script. But this is Vegas, which has little appetite for the sentimental.

While Im kept knocking down flags, Wolff took bogey at the 10th off another poor drive. He suffered two more wayward tee shots at the 11th and 12th, but salvaged pars. Yet, now was no time for salvaging. Wolff needed to be on the attack, which is why it was curious—down five with six to go—that he pulled out a 3-wood on the par-5 13th. The decision backfired, his ball failing to clear a bunker 300 yards out and burying near its lip. His second advanced 20 feet; his third caught the top of a hill. The final damage was a bogey 6 when he absolutely needed an eagle 3.

“I just … I really … I’ve never seen a break like that. I hit a good drive and I thought I could carry that bunker like I’ve been all week, but unfortunately, it just went in the lip,” Wolff explained. “But, I mean, with a 3-wood you think it would just roll down to the middle of the bunker and then you would hit something into the fairway and then have a good look at birdie. For my ball to, someone left the rake at the top of the bunker and it left an indentation and my ball stuck in that indentation.”

Yes, Wolff fell short. Still, given where Wolff has been, he needs no trophy to consider the week a triumph.

“Yeah, I was just really happy with how the week turned out,” Wolff said. “I keep on putting myself in these positions I know that eventually it’s going to be in my favour and I’m going to win. But really like the way my game’s trending, especially from the beginning—or the end of last year. If you would have told me I would be in this position right now, I would be really happy.”

Alex Goodlett

Back to Im. With a mountain of chips in his guard, the poker player held his cards tight as he watched those around him go for broke and wind up just that. He changed targets down the stretch, happy now aiming at the fat part of the greens and methodically, undramatically, taking pars.

“I saw the scoreboard for the first time on the 14th hole and when I saw that I was leading by five, I said to myself, ‘Let’s not make a mistake and I can get this done,’” Im said.

It was masterful, Im hitting all but one green on the day and turning in a bogey-free card. Wolff added birdies at the 16th and 17th, but the issue was no longer in doubt, Im’s nine-under 63 winning by four shots.

It is Im’s second career tour win, coming 19 months after his 2020 Honda Classic victory. In theory the game shouldn’t need a reminder of Im’s prowess; he’s as present a star as golf has, leading the tour in starts in two of the last three seasons and is a good bet to make it three of the past four. He was one of the best 10 players in the world when the game was halted by the pandemic.

“I was on a really good roll, and I was feeling great about my game after the Honda win and I played well in the Arnold Palmer as well the week following it,” Im says about the 2020 shutdown. “But it is unfortunate. It’s something that I couldn’t control. But after the pandemic, when golf was resumed, I really tried to find that rhythm again and there were times that was not easy. But, again, try to stay composed and believe in my game.”

But Im’s also coming off something of a down season—which is a heck of a thing to say about something who finished T-2 at the Masters last November—and with a wealth of young stars Im’s shine is collaterally dimmed.

Yet Im is just 23, two years younger than Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns and Will Zalatoris. His swing is smoother than satin with the requisite power needed in today’s game. He makes a ton of birdies (no lower than 30th in birdie average the past three seasons) while keeping the big numbers (13th in bogey avoidance last year) at bay. His short game isn’t otherworldly, but it gets the job done. If there is a hole in his game, it has not been discovered. In short, his future is a one that looks bright.

“Obviously, when I’m playing well I feel great, but when I have a bad round I feel down easily. I think I’ve done that the last 10, 12 months. … But it’s a repetition every week and I learn from each week, and from that experience, I’m learning to control my emotions and everything on the course to stay composed, and I think this week it all paid off.”

Of course, as Wolff’s year has proven, success and growth are not linear, so we’ll save the dreaming of what could be for another day. Because what Im is in the present is a pretty rare thing, too: A man leaving Vegas as a winner.

The post Sungjae Im was the perfect fit to win in Las Vegas appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.