Im Sung-jae and Ram Tied for 12th... McIlroy and Harman Share the Lead

Sungjae Im Starts BMW Championship 1R at 2 Under Par
Six Players Including Schauffele, Clark, and Fowler Tied for 3rd
Byung-hoon An 23rd, Si-woo Kim 30th, Juhyung Kim 40th

Im Sung-jae, ranked 28th in the FedEx Cup standings, got off to a fresh start.

On the 17th (local time), he shot 2-under par in the first round of the BMW Championship (total prize money $20 million), the second event of the 2022/2023 PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs, held at Olympia Fields Country Club (par 70, 7,366 yards) in Olympia Fields, Illinois, USA, placing him tied for 12th. World No. 2 Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Open Champion Brian Harman (USA) are tied for the lead at 5-under par 65.

This tournament features only the top 50 players in the 2022/2023 FedEx Cup rankings. There is no cut, and even the player finishing 50th receives $66,000. After this event, only the top 30 advance to the season-ending Tour Championship. Even the 30th place finisher in the final event earned $500,000 (about 670 million KRW) last year. Last year’s FedEx Cup champion McIlroy took home $18 million (about 24 billion KRW).

Im Sung-jae is teeing off at the 2nd hole of the 1st round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs 2nd event, the BMW Championship. [Olympia Fields (USA) = AFP·Yonhap News]

Im Sung-jae carded three birdies and one bogey. His strong start with consecutive birdies on holes 1 and 2 stood out. After a brief pause with a bogey on the 7th hole (par 4), he made another birdie on the 13th hole (par 3). He made par on the remaining five holes. He relied on his long drives averaging 303 yards and an impressive 1.67 putts per hole on greens hit. He is three strokes behind the co-leaders, in a position to contend for the lead. Im finished as runner-up in last year’s FedEx Cup.

Third-ranked McIlroy showed perfect play with five birdies and no bogeys. Six players, including second-ranked Scottie Scheffler, US Open champion Wyndham Clark, and Rickie Fowler (all USA), are tied for third at 4-under par 66. FedEx Cup No. 1 Jon Rahm (Spain) and defending champion Patrick Cantlay are tied for 12th, while Lucas Glover (USA), who recently won two consecutive events, is tied for 23rd at even par 70.

From Korea, An Byeong-hun, ranked 38th in the FedEx Cup, exchanged two birdies for two bogeys and joined the group tied for 23rd. Kim Si-woo, ranked 17th, is tied for 30th at 1-over par 71, looking to move up the leaderboard. Kim Joo-hyung, ranked 18th, struggled with four birdies and six bogeys, sitting tied for 40th at 2-over par 72.

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