Im Sung-jae and Lee Kyoung-hoon to fight for season title at Tour Championship

Golf

Published: 24 Aug. 2022, 14:54

Im Sung-jae and Lee Kyoung-hoon to fight for season title at Tour Championship

Im Sung-jae, right, walks to the fifth green during the first round of the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club on Aug. 18 in Wilmington, Delaware. [AFP/YONHAP]

Lee Kyoung-Hoon plays his shot from the third tee during the first round of the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club on Aug. 18 in Wilmington, Delaware. [AFP/YONHAP]

Im Sung-jae and Lee Kyoung-hoon will be teeing off the 2022 PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday.

The Tour Championship is the season-ending finale of the PGA Tour and the final leg of the FedExCup Playoffs.

The event follows a three-week whittling down of the best players in PGA golf, with the top 125 on the FedExCup standings invited to the initial FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first stage in the FedExCup playoffs two weeks ago.

That field then dropped to the top 70 on the FedExCup standings for the BMW Championship, the second playoff last week, with only the top 30 advancing to the Tour Championship, where the FedExCup Champion is crowned.

Advancement is based on FedExCup ranking, not on a golfer's position in each individual tournament.

Kim Joo-hyung and Kim Si-woo both failed to extend their playoff journey after tying for No. 54 and No. 67 at the BMW Championship.

The Tour Championship starts on Thursday with contenders entering the tournament with scores already bolstered by their FedEx Cup standings. Im starts the tournament at four-under-par as he is tied for sixth in the standings. Lee starts on Thursday at even par as he is tied for 26th.

Im is the first Korean to earn a spot on the Tour Championship, which is only open to the top 30 golfers on the FedExCup standings, for four consecutive years.

No Korean golfer has won the FedExCup since its launch in 2007, with K. J. Choi having come the closest with a fifth-place finish in the inaugural year.

The best Im has done was an 11th-place finish last season. In 2019, he was 19th on the final standing and was named Rookie of the Year.

Last year, Im finished tied for 20th, failing to better his record but managed to make it onto the PGA Tour record books with the most birdies in a single season.

Lee joins Im at East Lake Golf Club for his first ever Tour Championship after an explosive No. 5 finish at last week's BMW Championship that saw him rise to No. 26 in the standings from No. 33.

Lee is one of the four players that advanced to the Tour Championship after beginning the BMW Championship outside of the top 30, alongside Scott Stallings, who went from No. 46 to No. 12, Adam Scott, who went from No. 45 to No. 29, and Aaron Wise, who went from No. 31 to No. 30.

In the final round of the BMW Championship, Lee started off with four consecutive birdies, smashing through the first nine with five birdies and adding a fifth in the par-4 eighth. Despite a slight slip on the par-4 10th, where he carded his first bogey, Lee went on to add two more birdies on the par-4 16th and par-4 17th to finish with an overall 10-under-par, 273.

Lee narrowly missed out on last year's Tour Championship. He finished 31st last year, missing out on the finale by one place.

The FedExCup champion will earn $18 million, the largest prize pot in golf and $3 million more than last year.

The elite 30 will start their race to the ultimate prize on Thursday. Lee will tee off at 12:05 p.m. alongside J. T. Poston of the United States. Im will tee off at 1:25 p.m. alongside Jon Rahm of Spain.

No. 1 Scottie Sheffler of the United States, who tied for third at the BMW Championship to reclaim the top seed, will take pole position at 10-under-par. He will tee off alongside countryman No. 2 Patrick Cantlay, who will be looking to become the first player to successfully defend his Tour Championship title.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]