Hard work pays off for ‘road warrior’ Sungjae Im at Honda Classic

Sungjae Im, who plays seemingly every week on the PGA Tour, is now a champion after winning the Honda Classic at PGA National on Sunday

The “Bear Trap,” the treacherous stretch of three holes on the back nine at PGA National, is usually a spot where dreams of winning the Honda Classic go to die.

For Sungjae Im, however, he didn’t just successfully navigate holes 15-17 on Sunday, he conquered them on his way to his first PGA Tour title in his 50th career start.

Im played the “Bear Trap” in two-under during a final-round four-under 66, making birdie on both long par-threes with water surrounding the greens. Even on the par-four 16th he displayed his mettle, getting around the lip of a fairway bunker and finding the green with his approach shot to save par. The 21-year-old Korean finished the tournament at six-under, one ahead of Mackenzie Hughes, and becomes the youngest winner in the event’s 48-year history.

“Fifteen is probably the hardest hole out here in my opinion,” Im said following the tournament through his caddie-translator Albin Choi. “Going into that hole the past few days I was a little tentative and didn’t really hit my lines. But going into today I had the right club, the wind was in the right spot, and just felt like I had everything to attack the pin the way I did. I just was aggressive and saw my shot and glad it worked out the way it did.”

It’s a type of philosophy that belies his relative inexperience. The 2019 PGA Rookie of the Year is in just his second season but has spent these past two years making himself into the tour’s consummate road warrior. Im has already played 13 events in the 2020 season, including seven of the last eight. In 2019, he teed up in 35 of 41 weeks and nine of the last ten. His 122 rounds played last season was 20 more than any other player. Going back to his days on the Korn Ferry Tour, he skipped only two of 27 events in 2018 on his way to earning Player of the Year honors and topping the money list.

But when asked if he’s going to take any time off after his first victory, Im quickly said that’s not in his plans. He might skip an event during the tour’s Texas swing in early April but otherwise expects to play every event. And that’s just the way he likes it.

“I’m just so happy to be on the PGA Tour and just to play golf. It doesn’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,” he said. “As far as difficulty-wise it’s not very hard because I’m doing what I really want to do.”

That it was Hughes, whose lone PGA Tour victory came at the RSM Classic in 2016, who turned out to be Im’s biggest challenger on Sunday came as a surprise. The Canadian pro had missed his last five cuts on tour and didn’t have a top-10 finish since last May. He made the cut on Friday by one shot and was four-over through his first 37 holes this week.

But he then played his last 35 holes in nine-under, holing a 53-footer for birdie at the 17th, the longest putt made on that hole all week, to revive his hopes of catching Im. After a big pull to the left and into the grandstands on his approach shot to the 18th, though, he could only watch as his birdie putt and his hopes slid past the hole.

Tommy Fleetwood, who with his long, flowing locks of golden-brown hair stands out in any crowd, also came up empty in his attempt to capture his first PGA Tour title. Fleetwood birdied the difficult 17th, his 24-foot putt taking a left turn at the last moment and falling into the center of the cup, to get within one of Im.

Needing a birdie on 18 to force a playoff, Fleetwood was perfectly positioned in the fairway with a chance to reach the par-five in two. But his approach shot slid too far to the right and into the water, leading to a bogey and dropping him to third place. An obnoxious fan was overheard on television yelling out in the middle of Fleetwood’s swing, but he said afterward he didn’t hear it; it was just a poor shot.

The 29-year-old Englishman will have to wait for another day for his PGA Tour breakthrough, but he’s now finished inside the top-five 10 times since the start of 2017. He also extended his run of cuts made to 33 consecutive events, the longest active streak on tour.

PGA National confounded players all week, with Im’s winning score of six-under the highest in a non-major since 2016. And even after going home with the trophy and conquering one of golf’s toughest courses, Im won’t celebrate too long: he’s in the field next week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. What else would you expect?