Im Sungjae Tied for 7th at 3 Shots Behind... Mickelson and Oosthuizen Share Lead

Major PGA Championship Day 2 Even-Par Pause, Kepka 3rd, Matsuyama Tied 4th, Spieth Tied 50th

Im Sung-jae is carefully reading the putting line on the 2nd hole of the second day of the PGA Championship. Kiawah Island (South Carolina, USA) = Getty Images / Photo by Multibits

[Asia Economy Reporter No Woo-rae] It is a 'one step back for two steps forward' for Im Sung-jae (23, CJ Logistics), ranked 23rd in the world.

On the 22nd (Korean time), at the Ocean Course (par 72, 7,876 yards) in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, USA, the second day of the 103rd PGA Championship, a major tournament, Im shot an even par and stood tied for 7th place (2 under par, 142 strokes). Veteran Phil Mickelson (USA) and Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) are co-leaders (5 under par, 139 strokes), 'Major man' Brooks Koepka (USA) is 3rd (4 under par, 140 strokes), and 'Masters champ' Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) is tied for 4th (3 under par, 141 strokes).

Im Sung-jae started tied for 8th, 3 strokes behind, exchanging 2 birdies and 2 bogeys. In the front nine, he recorded a bogey on the 3rd hole (par 4) and a birdie on the 7th hole (par 5), and in the back nine, he immediately recovered a bogey on the 14th hole (par 3) with a birdie on the 15th hole (par 4). His fairway hit rate was a decent 78.57%, but his greens in regulation was only 61.11%, showing inconsistency in his iron shots. His putting average per hole was 1.91, which was not good. He is only 3 strokes behind the leader, so a comeback victory is possible.

Mickelson added 3 under par to take the top spot on the leaderboard. This marks his 6th major win and 45th career victory. Matsuyama shot 4 under par, quickly joining the race for the championship. Corey Conners (Canada), who was the leader the previous day, struggled with 3 over par and is tied for 7th. 'Hulk' Bryson DeChambeau is tied for 12th (1 under par, 143 strokes), defending champion Collin Morikawa (both USA) is tied for 25th (1 over par, 145 strokes), and 'Number 3' Jon Rahm (Spain) and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) are tied for 39th (3 over par, 147 strokes).

Jordan Spieth (USA) lost 3 strokes and dropped to tied 50th (4 over par, 148 strokes), making it difficult to achieve the sixth 'Career Grand Slam' in global golf history. From Korea, An Byeong-hun (30, CJ Logistics) advanced to the third round tied for 50th. On the other hand, Kim Si-woo (26) tied for 95th (7 over par, 141 strokes) and Lee Kyoung-hoon (30, both CJ Logistics) tied for 127th (11 over par, 155 strokes) were cut off. Yang Yong-eun (49) was disqualified due to a scorecard error.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.