FedExCup Update: Merritt moves from BMW bubble to top of THE NORTHERN TRUST leaderboard

THE OVERVIEW If Sungjae Im was one of one of the cool-kid, Madison Avenue-driven American youngsters, the media hype around him might be out of this world. This South Korean star on the rise dominated the Web.com Tour in 2018, winning the opening event and leading the money list wire-to-wire, the only player in Tour history to achieve the feat. Two wins and 13 total top-25 finishes showed incredible consistency, and at just 20 years old, Im is indeed a player we need to keep an eye on. His first win came when he was just 19, making him the second-youngest player to ever win on that Tour behind Jason Day. He made 397 birdies during the Web.com Tour season, the most by a single player since 2011, and his final-round scoring average was an incredible 68. Im is the youngest of all new rookies on the PGA TOUR this season and may turn out to be the best – although Cameron Champ already has set a pretty high standard by posting a win in the fall. Proving the step up to the big leagues would not faze him, Im opened the new season with a T4 at the Safeway Open. Through six starts he sits 34th in the FedExCup and has plenty of TOUR veterans looking over their shoulder wondering just how long it might be before he makes his next breakthrough. Im hits the ball incredibly straight and loves a high ball flight, making him well suited to plenty of TOUR venues. His swing is comparable to Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama given the deliberate takeaway, although there is not as much of a pronounced pause at the top. — By Ben Everill BY THE NUMBERS How Sungjae Im ranked in Strokes Gained statistics during his last full season on the PGA TOUR: FEDEXCUP UPDATE Current 2018-19 position: 34th Playoff appearances: 0 TOUR Championship appearances: 0 Best FedExCup result: Im is in good shape after the fall events as he seeks to secure a Playoffs spot in his rookie season. SHOTLINK FUN FACT Sungjae Im was 192 under par on the Web.com Tour last season, ranking second for the most under-par player on that tour since 2010. INSIDER INSIGHTS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Sungjae Im in 2019. TOUR INSIDER: Talk to anyone who spent time around the Web.com Tour last season and they’ll wax lyrical about this kid. The key to his performance appears to be a machine-like quality of consistency. He’s already ranked 20th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee. To get to the next level of excellence, he will need to sharpen his short game. Around the greens can cause a level of anxiety for the youngster, perhaps because he’s rarely in trouble. — By Ben Everill FANTASY INSIDER: All things considered, he’s off to the kind of start that he projected after a historic season on the Web.com Tour. He co-leads the PGA TOUR with six starts – he may touch 35 overall – and his final-round scoring average (with four sub-par scores contributing) is better than his averages of each of the first three rounds. Showcasing the same balanced attack that led to the top spot in Web.com Tour earnings, exempt status from the reshuffle this season and a tee time at TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS in March. And he still won’t turn 21 until two weeks after the TOUR’s flagship event. — By Rob Bolton EQUIPMENT INSIDER: Although Im found success on the Web.com Tour with a TaylorMade M3 driver in the bag, he switched to a Titleist TS3 for the 2018 Safeway Open and The CJ Cup. He stayed with the Graphite Design Tour AD-DI shaft despite switching heads. Im now has a bag full of Acushnet products, including a 917F2 fairway wood, 818H1 hybrid, AP2 irons, Vokey SM7 wedges and a Scotty Cameron 009 putter. — By Andrew Tursky STYLE INSIDER: With 1/4-zip sweaters, saddle shoes, and straight-legged trousers, Im proves there is still place in the game for classic looks. His style game is at its best when he uses pops of bright colors against darker, more traditional hues. Trading the white belt for one that matches his trousers would be a good New Year’s resolution for Im. — By Greg Monteforte

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NORTON, Mass. – Mother Nature had provided a gentle forecast – crisp, fall-like weather, temperatures reaching the low 70s – but being a veteran of 37 PGA TOUR seasons, Mark Russell suspected some turbulence would accompany Friday’s first round of the Dell Technologies Championship. There had been a drastic change to the par-4 12th at TPC Boston and Russell, vice president of rules, competition and administration for the PGA TOUR, had caught wind of player discontent. Some of it was loud, much of it animated, but all of it was met with Russell’s unmatched sense of calm. “Let’s just play four rounds of golf and see what we have,â€� Russell said. Well, after just one day, we have definitive proof that architect Gil Hanse has provided a much tougher 12th hole. When the day was done, the field average was 4.453; in the previous 14 years of this tournament, the average there was 4.064. Just three birdies were made in Round 1, as opposed to years 2003-16 when an average of 14.98 were made per round. And when it came to rank, No. 12 was the toughest hole Friday, compared to being on average 7.5 in past years. It’s just one-quarter of the way through the tournament, of course, and both Russell and Hanse have asked for a bigger pool of data. Players being players, however, many have already decided they don’t like the change. “It was one of the better holes. You don’t need to change it,â€� said Justin Thomas, who seemed to have support from other vocal peers. Yet, heeding Russell’s call for a fair sample, Marc Leishman simply shrugged. He had to make a ticklish 5-footer to save par, but so be it. “I don’t really get into all that stuff,â€� the Aussie said of the controversy after his round of 4-under 67. “I just play what we’re given. That’s what we’ve been given this week, so just play on it and do as good as I can.â€� In years past, No. 12 was roughly a 465-yard hole with a green tucked in behind an environmentally friendly hazard. True, it yielded its share of double-bogeys or higher (3.51 per round between 2003-16) and there were seven made Friday, but mostly the biggest change thus far is in the lack of scoring opportunities. Kevin Na made the only morning birdie, from 29 feet, while Grayson Murray (18 feet) and Kevin Kisner (12) converted splendid approaches in the afternoon. A miserly 25.26 percent of the field found the green in regulation. Indeed, it wasn’t the 12th that players had come to know, although Leishman seemed to understand the change. “In the past, it has been more (like) driver, wedge, or driver, 9-iron. But now, you’re going to be hitting longer irons in there.â€� But more than length (and while it can stretch to a 511-yard par 4, Friday it played at around 490), the new 12th features a bunker down the left that requires a 256-yard carry, and a big “Principal’s Noseâ€� bunker down the right that can be reached at 305 yards. Since at approximately 300 yards the fairway slopes steeply downward, the play is to carry the left bunker but hit your drive up on the plateau. Therein lies one of the problems — players conceded they hadn’t yet figured out the hole and so decisions were all over the map. Adam Scott hit 3-wood, 7-iron and made par; Gary Woodland hit 2-iron, 4-iron, made bogey and seemed to admit he was confounded; Louis Oosthuizen hit 4-wood, 4-iron and made bogey by missing the green short; and Thomas stayed with a game plan to hit a big, high sweeping draw into the 13th fairway, from where he still had a 190-yard second shot. He made par but said, “I still don’t like the hole.â€� Colleagues who might have agreed with Thomas weren’t about to adopt his game plan, however. Not when the penalty for not hitting a big, high sweeping drive was trouble with trees and then a possible second shot up and over more trees. And not when quality players such as Scott (3-wood, 201-yard approach, two putts from 50 feet), Rory McIlroy (3-wood, 214-yard approach, two putts from 12 feet), and Dustin Johnson (3-wood, 6-iron, two putts from 60 feet) showed that the hole wasn’t impossible. Hanse was on-site Thursday and faced the players. So often they have sung his praises, but this time there is criticism. Like a man, he listened, but he also agreed with Russell. Give it time.

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