Golf intersects with history as Faldo Series junior event concludes in Vietnam

Welcome to the Stats Insider, where we’ll take a closer look at Sungjae Im’s win at The Honda Classic. Im is just 21 years old but he’s already won the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Award, PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year and now a PGA TOUR event. RELATED: Slow and steady, Im withstands pressure at The Honda Classic | What’s in Im’s bag? 1. YOUTH MOVEMENT: We’ve seen several young stars win on the PGA TOUR recently, and Im continued that trend. He is the fifth player age 22 or younger to win on the PGA TOUR since July, joining Matthew Wolff, Collin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann and Viktor Hovland. That’s just two fewer than in the preceding five seasons. Seven players age 22 or younger won on the PGA TOUR from 2014 to 2018. Compare that to the 15 years from 1985 to 2000, when just four players age 22 or younger won on the PGA TOUR. 2. TOP NOTCH: Im moved to No. 2 in the FedExCup with the win, just 135 points behind Justin Thomas. Im also had a runner-up at this season’s Sanderson Farms Championship, where he lost a playoff to Sebastian Munoz, and finished third at THE ZOZO Championship. He finished behind Tiger Woods and Hideki Matsuyama that week, and tied Rory McIlroy. Im’s three top-3 finishes this season are tied for the most on TOUR. 3. TOUGH STUFF: Im conquered one of the toughest tracks on the PGA TOUR. PGA National’s penal layout, firm greens and a windy week combined to make this one of the toughest non-majors in recent memory. Only 16 players broke par for the week and the average round this week was nearly 2 over par. Im’s winning score of 6-under 274 is the highest winning score (in relation to par) in a non-major since Brandt Snedeker’s win in the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open. This was the first non-major since 1996 where no one posted a round of 5 under or lower. Im shot 4-under 66 in both the second and fourth rounds. 4. IT’S A TRAP?: Im won The Honda Classic with Sunday’s performance on the Bear Trap. He birdied the two par-3s that bookend that infamous trio of holes. Nos. 15 and 17 were the second- and third-hardest holes Sunday, but Im birdied both. There were just 13 birdies on those holes Sunday. Im was one of just two players to birdie both holes in the final round. Daniel Berger was the other. 5. TEE-TO-GREEN MACHINE: Sungjae Im finished 11th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach and fifth in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. Add it all together, and he led Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green by a large margin. He gained 12.3 strokes from tee-to-green, three more than the next player in that statistic (Russell Henley).

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All aboard the Tom Kim train. The 20-year-old South Korean (birth name Joohyung Kim) produced a dynamic double in Sunday’s final round at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Not only did Kim match a Detroit GC tournament course record with a 9-under 63, but he acquired enough non-member FedExCup points to clinch his PGA TOUR card for 2022-23. Kim now holds 417 non-member FedExCup points, which would place him No. 97 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List if he were a member. By earning equivalent points to No. 125 after next week’s Wyndham Championship, he will earn his card for next season. There is not a scenario where 29 players could pass him next week. “It means everything,” said Kim of earning a PGA TOUR card for next season. “Every day I’ve played golf, I thought about playing on the PGA TOUR, it was nothing else. It could get a little emotional tonight, but it’s definitely been a dream. It’s been a road.” Kim stood T24 entering the final round in Detroit, knowing a strong finish could allow him to make an appreciative scheduling change and remove the Korn Ferry Tour Finals from his calendar (an alternate avenue to earn his TOUR card next month). He delivered with seven birdies and a hole-out eagle from 126 yards at the par-4 10th, moving safely inside the top 10 on the leaderboard. Kim received a sponsor exemption into the Rocket Mortgage Classic, his eighth TOUR start of the season. He had already earned Special Temporary Membership by surpassing the No. 150 position on last season’s FedExCup via non-member points, with three top-25s highlighted by a solo third at the Genesis Scottish Open earlier this month. As a non-member, Kim will not be exempt into the FedExCup Playoffs unless he wins next week’s Regular Season-ending Wyndham Championship. His showing in Detroit, though, ensures that his non-member FedExCup points will exceed No. 125 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List upon the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship. Kim turned pro in 2018 and has already won twice on the Asian Tour and twice on the Korean Tour. He arrived in Detroit at No. 39 on the Official World Golf Ranking. The kid who adopted the American name Thomas due to his fascination with the television series “Thomas the Tank Engine” is now set to assume well-deserved status as a PGA TOUR member.

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