Im Sung-jae ( ko, 임성재; born 30 March 1998), also known as Sungjae Im, is a South Korean

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. Im won twice and was Player of the Year on the 2018 Web.com Tour. He was Rookie of the Year for the

2018–19 PGA Tour The 2018–19 PGA Tour was the 104th season of the PGA Tour, and the 52nd since separating from the PGA of America. The season began on October 4, 2018. The 2019 FedEx Cup Playoffs begun on August 8, and concluded on August 25, 2019, with Rory M ...

, and got his first PGA Tour victory at

The Honda Classic The Honda Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in south Florida. It was founded in 1972 as Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Classic, and prior to a schedule change in 2021 was frequently the first of the Florida events in late winte ...

in March 2020.

Professional career

Im turned professional in 2015. In 2016 and 2017 he played on the

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after th ...

, his best finish being joint runner-up in the 2017 Mynavi ABC Championship. In

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

he finished 12th in the tour money list and 5th in the scoring average. He played a number of tournaments on the

Korean Tour The Korean Tour is a men's professional golf tour run by the Korea Professional Golfers' Association (KPGA) of South Korea. In 2011, it had total prize money of about US$14 million. Professional golf in Korea dates back to the mid 20th century. ...

, his best finish being joint runner-up in the 2017 T-up Gswing Mega Open. In December 2017, Im finished second in the

Web.com Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. Th ...

Q-school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

, including a third round of 60. He won the first event of the season,

The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic is a golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour, played at Sandals Emerald Bay Golf Course in the Bahamas. It is one of two Korn Ferry Tour events in the Bahamas, along with The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic The Bahamas ...

, becoming, at , the second youngest winner in Web.com Tour history. Only

Jason Day Jason Day (born 12 November 1987) is an Australian professional golfer, PGA Tour member and winner of the 2015 PGA Championship. He is a former world number one in the World Golf Ranking, having first achieved the ranking in September 2015. ...

, at , had been a younger winner. Im had three solo runner-up finishes, in

The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic is a golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour, played at the Abaco Club on Winding Bay in the Bahamas. It is one of two Korn Ferry Tour events in the Bahamas, along with The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic. Both events w ...

, the Knoxville Open and the

Pinnacle Bank Championship The Pinnacle Bank Championship is a golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour. It was first played in July 2017 at The Club at Indian Creek in Omaha, Nebraska. Winners Bolded golfers graduated to the PGA Tour via the Korn Ferry Tour regular-season m ...

, and finished the regular season by winning the

WinCo Foods Portland Open The WinCo Foods Portland Open was a golf tournament in Oregon on the Korn Ferry Tour. It debuted in August 2014 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, a suburb northwest of Portland. Northwest-based supermarket chain WinCo Foods was named ...

. He led the regular season money list and was named Web.com Tour Player of the Year. In the 2018–19 PGA Tour season, Im won the

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

. He became just the 13th rookie to qualify for the

Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...

in the

FedEx Cup The FedEx Cup is a championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Announced in November 2005, it was first awarded in 2007. Rory McIlroy is the 2022 champion. Th ...

era, ultimately finishing 19th in the standings. Im led the tour in starts (35) and cuts made (26), and his 118 rounds were 18 more than the nearest competitor. He had seven top-10s in 2019, highlighted by a T-3 at the

Arnold Palmer Invitational The Arnold Palmer Invitational is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played each March at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge, a private golf resort owned since 1974 by Arnold Palmer in Bay Hill, a suburb southwest of Orlando, Florida ...

, and finished 17th in strokes gained. Im joined

Stewart Cink Stewart may refer to: People * Stewart (name), Scottish surname and given name *Clan Stewart, a Scottish clan *Clan Stewart of Appin, a Scottish clan Places Canada * Stewart, British Columbia *Stewart Township, Nipissing District, Ontario (hist ...

(1996–97) as the only players to be named the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in consecutive seasons. On 22 September 2019, Im lost the

Sanderson Farms Championship The Sanderson Farms Championship is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played annually in Mississippi. It moved to the Country Club of Jackson in Jackson in autumn 2014, early in the 2015 season. The tournament has been part of the ...

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

in a playoff to

Sebastián Muñoz Juan Sebastián Muñoz (born 4 January 1993) is a Colombian professional golfer. He played predominantly on the PGA Tour, where he had one tournament victory, the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2019, prior to joining LIV Golf in 2023. Career ...

. In December 2019, Im played on the International team at the

2019 Presidents Cup The 2019 Presidents Cup was the 13th edition of the Presidents Cup golf competition, held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, from 12 to 15 December 2019. Royal Melbourne previously hosted the tournament in 1998, at which the ...

Royal Melbourne Golf Club Royal Melbourne Golf Club is a 36-hole golf club in Australia, located in Black Rock, Victoria, a suburb southeast of Melbourne. Its West and East courses are respectively ranked number 1 and 6 in Australia. The West course is ranked in the t ...

in Australia. The U.S. team won 16–14. Im went 3–1–1 and won his Sunday singles match against

Gary Woodland Gary Woodland (born May 21, 1984) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Woodland won the U.S. Open in 2019, his first major championship and sixth professional victory. Following a successful college career, he turned ...

. On 1 March 2020, Im won

PGA National Resort and Spa PGA National Resort is a resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. It has five championship 18-hole golf courses, the most famous of which is "The Champion", which has hosted the 1983 Ryder Cup, the 1987 PGA Championship, the Senior PGA Championship ...

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida, 77 miles north of downtown Miami. , the population was 59,182. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6 ...

, with a final round of 66 and an overall score of −6. He finished one stroke ahead of

Mackenzie Hughes Mackenzie Hughes (born November 23, 1990) is a Canadian professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Hughes was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He is a graduate of Kent State University. He won the 2011 and 2012 Canadian Amateur Championship. ...

, and moved to second place in the

standings. In November 2020, Im finished tied for second place at the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

; five shots behind

Dustin Johnson Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score ...

. On 10 October 2021, Im won the

Shriners Children's Open The Shriners Children's Open is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour in Nevada. Founded in 1983, it is the fourth event of the Tour's 2019–20 wrap-around season and is played annually in October in Las Vegas. It is currently held at the TPC Sum ...

at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada for his second PGA Tour title in his 100th start. Im shot a final round 9-under 62 and won by four shots over

Matthew Wolff Matthew Brandyn Wolff (born April 14, 1999) is an American professional golfer. He was an NCAA All-American at Oklahoma State University, and won the 2019 NCAA Division I individual championship. Wolff picked up his first win on the PGA Tour a ...

, coming from three behind at the start of the day. Im qualified for the International team at the 2022 Presidents Cup; he won two, tied one and lost two of the five matches he played.

Professional wins (5)

PGA Tour wins (2)

PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)

Web.com Tour wins (2)

Korean Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

''Results not in chronological order before 2019 and in 2020.'' CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
NT = No tournament due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (2021 PGA – 2022 Masters) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Cancelled after the first round due to the

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic
NT = No tournament
"T" = Tied
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022.

Team appearances

Professional *

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

(representing the International team):

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Im, Sung-jae South Korean male golfers Japan Golf Tour golfers PGA Tour golfers Olympic golfers of South Korea Golfers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Korn Ferry Tour graduates Sportspeople from Jeju Province 1998 births Living people