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In a tournament that was a war of attrition from the start, Sungjae Im became the youngest winner in Honda Classic history by hitting several clutch approach shots through PGA National’s famed Bear Trap in the final round. The 21-year-old South Korean made up for sloppy bogeys on Nos. 12 and 13 by hitting three peerless iron shots on the course’s most daunting holes – tee shots on the par-3 15th and 17th holes that both came to rest exactly 7 feet, 10 inches from the hole to set up birdies, plus a remarkable fairway bunker shot on the par-4 16th that led to him escaping with a par.
After Im chunked his third shot on the par-5 18th into a greenside bunker, he got up and down, posted a closing 66 and waited to see if anyone could match him at 6-under-par 274. His playing partner, Mackenzie Hughes, the Canadian who made the cut on the number and rallied furiously into contention, had made a 53-foot bomb for birdie on No. 17 and then stood in the 18th fairway needing a birdie to put pressure on Im. He sealed his fate by hooking a 3-wood into the grandstands on the left side of the hole, and when he could do no better than par, it left him one stroke short in second place after consecutive 66s on the weekend.
The 54-hole leader, Tommy Fleetwood, struggled for most of the day before making a 24-foot birdie on No. 17 to get to within one stroke of Im. His hopes also were dashed on the 72nd hole when he hung his second shot out into the water and eventually made bogey, falling into third place after a closing 71.
Im earned PGA Tour rookie-of-the-year honors a season ago, and it’s no surprise he won for the first time on tour. Like his countryman, 2017 Players Championship winner Si Woo Kim, Im plays a prodigious amount of tournament golf – he made 35 starts last season and already has made 14 starts this season – and had produced promising results.
He has 24 top-25 finishes in 51 PGA Tour starts and has been one of the tour’s best-kept secrets in the past couple of years. With his 3-1-1 record for the International team at the Presidents Cup last December and now a victory at the Honda Classic, Im isn’t likely to remain a mystery for long.
“Even after winning rookie of the year and having a few chances to win, I really wanted to get that win,” Im said through his translator and caddie Albin Choi, a professional golfer who has taken time from competition to loop for his friend. “Had a few good chances that slipped away, but I’m also still very grateful that I could win at such a young age, and to have it happen as fast as I did, I’m very happy and satisfied.”
The scouting report on Im is simple: His game travels well because there isn’t much of anything he does poorly. He finished 17th in strokes gained overall last season and has a deliberate takeaway reminiscent of another pure ballstriker, Hideki Matsuyama. His No. 1 tee-to-green ranking at the Honda Classic was no fluke.
For all of his full-swing prowess, it was Im’s putter that came through in a major way on Sunday. The biggest moment may have been on No. 17, when Im followed Hughes’ birdie putt by calming rolling home his own.
“After Mackenzie made the putt, it definitely sparked my focus up a little bit more and kind of got me more focused on my own putt,” Im said.
Hughes and Fleetwood no doubt experienced wildly different emotions in the aftermath of missing out on victory. Hughes has been decidedly terrible this season, falling to No. 308 in the world and finishing no better than a tie for 55th in 12 previous starts. His back-to-back 66s were a massive confidence boost.
“It’s been a really tough season so far for me,” said Hughes, who won the 2016 RSM Classic. “I knew I was never really that far off, but it’s all results, and the results weren’t good so far this year. I always believed I could do it, but until you do it and get yourself back in there, there was always that bit of doubt.”
For Fleetwood, the world’s 12th-ranked player at the start of last week, it is nothing but heartbreak and question marks. He still has yet to win on the PGA Tour despite making the cut in 33 consecutive starts worldwide and consistently coming close to breaking through.
“Absolutely I want to be a regular winner, but there’s no moaning and groaning about it now,” Fleetwood said. “It didn’t happen. There’s a lot of amazing players on the tour trying to win, and it’s not a given, so I’ve just got to keep going and if I keep getting this close, it will happen.”
RESULTS | MONEY LIST
sean fairholm