Sungjae Im’s meteoric rise continues

The 2019 International Presidents Cup team could only laugh in amazement. It was Monday of tournament week at Royal Melbourne and the team was looking to get on the course and fine-tune their strategy. But wild winds meant practice might prove difficult. Given the forecast didn't call for similar conditions at any other stage during the week, the majority of the team figured playing might do more harm than good on the notoriously hard and fast layout. But not playing golf has never sounded good to Sungjae Im. "It was so windy that I certainly didn’t even think about touching any of the holes because I didn’t want to destroy my confidence," International Team veteran and spiritual leader Adam Scott recalls. "Sungjae was the only guy who went out there to play, so we ended up walking out and watching him play a few holes, and even in a 25 mile-an-hour wind at Royal Melbourne he was just fairway, green, fairway, green, and it was a bit like Iron Byron, like a machine." Im put on quite a show for his new teammates and continued to do so over the practice days. He'd adjust to hitting shots on demand when Captain Ernie Els suggested certain lines. Teammates started making requests - initially out of jest. But Im nailed them all. What they weren't fully aware of was that Im could imitate all of his new friends - on demand - if he wanted to. Im's rise at that point had already been meteoric. He'd gone from the Korean Tour to the Japan Tour to the 2018 Korn Ferry Tour in quick time and opened there with a victory that would help him stay on top of the Points List for the entire season - earning Rookie and Player of the Year honors. A year later he was the 2018-19 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year after a trip to the TOUR Championship and he was a no-brainer for Els to compete in Melbourne at just 21. Scott predicted Im would be a "silent assassin" in the competition that week - a thought that proved on the money as Im went 3-1-1. Els knew Im would be methodically accurate and as such wasn't afraid to give him three different partners across the four days. Entering 2020, Im was riding high on confidence and at The Honda Classic he took a chance to grab his first TOUR win by the throat. Four birdies in his first five holes Sunday put him in the mix and then he brought out his machine-like precision when it counted - on the infamous Bear Trap. Im hit laser approaches right at the stick to set up birdies at Nos. 15 and 17, and on 16 he also took dead aim despite coming from a fairway bunker. It was as bold as it gets and helped him hold off the challengers for a one-shot win. He returns this week to defend his title. "When he is feeling his rhythm, it’s incredibly repetitive, and it doesn’t matter the conditions. He knows he can just point and shoot and get the result," Scott says. "It’s hard for his caddie to talk him into hitting it away from a pin ever because he thinks he can just pin-seek it all day." Im's rise was one he may have dreamed of, but it certainly was one he hadn't initially planned for. This was showcased by the fact he held no home base in the U.S. and just went from hotel to hotel with his parents - playing more TOUR stops than anyone else. It wasn't until late last year he finally purchased a home here. That's a move he can still scarcely believe. It wasn't really that long ago he was a plastic-club wielding toddler growing up on Jeju Island in South Korea with golf-mad parents. His father Ji Taek would watch a lot of golf on television and Sungjae would stare at the rhythmic swings of the pros. When he was a little older he'd head to the indoor range with his mother, Mi Kim, and watch the technique of golfers in real time. He was locking it all in and it was here his obsession with golf would grow. "Sungjae has a special ability to memorize, with his eyes, what he sees or screens... his ability to take a good look at something, put it in the brain, and re-imagine and then implement it... I think it is superior to anyone," Ji Taek recently told the TOUR’s International Media division for an upcoming in-depth PGA TOUR profile. "He watched a lot. It’s a little hard to describe but he was one of a kind in that area. And now he still reviews his swing in videos and watches other golfers’ videos a lot too." So Im had analyzed Scott's swing many times before. His favorite was probably Rory McIlroy. When McIlroy played the Korean Open, a 15-year-old Im actually got a lesson from the Northern Irishman as a perk of the Korean junior system. With all this information ingrained in his growing brain Im went about creating his own perfect swing in his childhood years. But while most kids want to learn to shape and curve the ball, Im was fixated on making it go straight. Dead straight. "When he was a kid Sungjae was very annoyed if he didn’t like the ball he hit. Every time he takes a shot, one by one, he always had to hit the high ball on the straight," his father adds. "From an early age. High ball, straight. If the ball draws or fades a little, he was very annoyed." It was this search for perfection that is part of the birth of his very slow and deliberate backswing. Im comes back slow before transitioning into higher speed on the downswing. The drills used to get a smooth tempo would eventually find their way to the course. "When he would go to the practice range, it’s always tempo. One, two, three. I kept putting it in his head. So, when swinging back, you have to say ‘one, two, three," Ji Taek says. "One, two, three... it must have been in his brain... I repeated it for one to two years. "But now it is slower than that. Originally, his swing tempo was at that level, but his swing seems to have been slower since the Korn Ferry Tour. That’s the rhythm that only he has kept on his own." In the fifth grade - Im began playing junior tournaments on the mainland. Jeju Island sits off the southern tip of South Korea's mainland with Seoul about an hour flight away. It was actually a wrong turn looking for the golf course one day that would change his trajectory. "One day, he participated in a competition held in Cheonan, and we went to the (nearby) driving range by accident," Ji Taek explained. "About 10 academy students are there training under a pro coach. Sungjae was very envious when he sees it. I asked him if he wanted to be in the academy. He immediately replied that he wanted so. So, after consulting with the pro and the academy director, I put Sungjae into the academy." From there he was able to put full focus on his golf. When he reached high school his coach was Hyun Choi - a mentor he continues to work with today. Im often sends video back to Korea for his coach to analyze, they discuss drills, and Im puts it into practice. During the COVID-19 pandemic break in 2020, Im flew Choi out to the U.S to keep their work going. A great swing is one thing - but a great competitive drive and mental game is another. It was the emergence of these traits that saw Im become one of the best young players in the world and had good judges suggesting the U.S. was the place for him. He turned professional at 18 and conquered every step put in front of him. Im's parents couldn't help but be amazed by their son’s quick progress through various Q-School stages in Korea and then in Japan. He held the fifth-best scoring average on the Japan Tour in 2017 and while his top finish was a runner-up - it was a ringing endorsement from a local legend that would have the Im family thinking of taking a run at something bigger. Shingo Katayama - a 31-time Japan Tour winner who also has two top four finishes in majors - played with Im that season. He walked away telling some of his friends he'd seen the future. In his opinion Im was perhaps the only player on that tour with PGA TOUR proficiency. One of those friends, Han Lee, passed on the information to Im's parents. "When we heard it, we were so excited. Sungjae, his mom and me. All of us. The legendary permanent seeded player, Katayama Shingo praised him!" Ji Taek beams even now. "Further, it was not just an ordinary praise, but specifically rate him as the only one who can go to the PGA (TOUR). That was when Sungjae was 18 years old and in the first year of Japan Tour. "We had never thought he had such potential. We just thought it would be nice if Sungjae played on the Japan Tour. When the legendary Katayama Shingo expressed about it, that’s what made a milestone for us. We should go to America!" The family gave themselves a three-year target to progress from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA TOUR. He needed just one year - winning in the season opener and the season ender - and the rest is history. In 2019 in his rookie TOUR season he played 35 times - gaining a reputation as an iron man for doing so. Hotel-to-hotel living was actually preferred. His parents in one room, he in another. Im played golf. His parents did the rest. They continue to act as a traveling team to this day and not a round goes by without seeing his folks watching his efforts. But after a few years of the same pattern the golfing nomads have recently put down roots - in Duluth, Georgia - buying a house near TPC Sugarloaf. They're still coming to terms with it but didn't make the decision lightly - canvassing many Korean golfers that came before them. "When I was on the Korn Ferry Tour three years ago, I practiced at Sugarloaf a lot," Im says. "At that time, after seeing this place and feeling the atmosphere of the course, I had already thought that I would definitely want to settle down here. I like the environment where I practice, and I really like it because the atmosphere itself is good." And so now the next step awaits. Im's goals have shifted to more wins and better efforts on the biggest stages. He has 16 career top 10s so far - but only one of these came at a major, THE PLAYERS, a World Golf Championships or in the FedExCup Playoffs. Im battled with Dustin Johnson but ultimately finished as runner-up last November in his Masters debut. Further to that, he likes to keep an eye on lists and his place on them. Like securing a Presidents Cup slot for a rematch against the U.S. in 2022 and climbing up the FedExCup standings and world rankings. "Currently, my President’s Cup ranking is at the top and I want to keep it there. I haven’t won this year yet, but I want to win once," Im says. "I want to get good results in the majors this year. Besides that, what I always want every year is to attend the last TOUR Championship and finish off with good results." Given he's continually exceeded all of his goals as his journey has evolved don't be surprised if in a few months he's a major-winning, Olympic-medal winning, FedExCup champion.

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