A marathon for a PGA Tour Rookie
ATLANTA – Sungjae Im looked up from his bowl with sizzling pieces of pork and grinned. "No. 1, & # 39; he said and added a thumbs up for emphasis.
It is not easy to be a 21-year-old professional golfer living in a foreign country from a suitcase , week after week, navigating the most difficult jobs against top players, but on Tuesday evening I immediately felt at home in a back room of Honey Pig, the Korean barbecue restaurant in a suburb of Atlanta that he discovered through a search on the internet.
had been a Michelin reviewer, Im would have awarded the place three stars.
"The best food," he said.
I am the only PGA Tour rookie – and the only South – Korean – to continue to this week's Tour Championship, where he was tied for 13th after the second round on Friday, when he shot a one-over 71.
He is also the youngest in the field, 20 years junior to the oldest, Matt Kuchar, Im, who last sei kiss on the minor league circuit of the tour, was overshadowed throughout the summer by two of the other fresh faces of the tour, Matthew Wolff, 20, and Collin Morikawa, 22, both of whom rushed directly from the university to the winners' circle.
Im playing the turtle against their hares, I have strung together seven top-seven finishes this season – including a draw for third place on the Arnold Palmer Invitational – more than 34 tour starts, seven more than whoever in the Tour Championship field. Along the way he has honored a claim to rookie of the year, which will be decided in a vote of the tour players.
If he won, I would be the first honoree born in Asia.
"It would be incredibly important to me and something that I will cherish for the rest of my life," he said through an interpreter.
It sounded like I could count on a voice from Xander Schauffele, the recipient of the 2017 prize.
"There is always talk of Morikawa and Wolff and those who win and he doesn't," Schauffele said Thursday. "In my mind," he added, "would it is difficult to vote for someone else just because he is here and they are not. "
I have a swing as smooth as soju, the Korean version of vodka. Spectators who followed him during his first round, when he shot a three-under 67, wondered at his slow take-away meal and the sound of his ball coming from the club's face.
"He really flushes it," said Corey Conners, Canadian pro who played with Im on Thursday.
So deliberately Im & # 39; s depend Conner added, "You can't start your walk when he takes the club back. You have to hold onto your position a little more.
I grew up on Jeju Island, which his manager, Rambert Sim, described as the Hawaii of South Korea. He took his first swing, with a plastic club, at the age of 3. I enrolled at a golf academy in South Korea shortly before he entered his teens, became a professional at the age of 17 and strengthened his competition on the Japan Tour.
At the end of 2017, I traveled directly from an event in Japan to Arizona, where he qualified the following week to play the 2018 season on the PGA Tour & # 39; s minor league circuit , where he won his first start.
Both Im's parents were golf enthusiasts, but when Im's game blossomed, they stopped playing. "Our only interest in the game is now to see him play," said the father, Ji Taek, through an interpreter.
Im's parents traveled with him this season and he said he was grateful. "I feel alone without them," I said, adding that their presence keeps their stress levels low.
His parents give him room to breathe and become more independent. They go sightseeing and let him practice.
"They are amazing," said Brian Vranesh, his caddy. "They usually bring Sungjae over time, but I don't see them until Thursday before the playing time."
Im & # 39; s favorite meal is the Korean barbecue, but since he arrived in the United States a preference for Subway steak sandwiches has developed. I also can't get enough of the pristine practice greens at every tour stop. In South Korea, he explained, the courses he played had no special putting areas.
"Before I practiced my putting alone on tournament weeks," I said. "That is why I was not the best putter. Now I am getting better because I can practice placing my entire time in the United States."
how he became the leading vagabond in the tour & # 39; s band of road fighters With nowhere to go on, but at home in South Korea, Im chose to keep on playing in an eight-week course in the spring he did not skip a tournament, which he admitted was probably too much of a good thing.
"More than six weeks is hard for me," said Im, who has only taken one week off since mid-June. " Maybe next year five or six in a row, max. "
I spent so many nights in hotels this year that he seemed like an ideal brand ambassador for one of his two preferred chains. After the Tour Championship ends on Sunday, Im and his parents are planning in the Atlanta region e stay and look for a house.
Im said he had also considered living in Los Angeles because of the vibrant South Korean community. But after he had played the tour stop there in February, he cooled the idea.
"Too much traffic," he said in perfect English before Sim, who was interpreting, could reply.
The rush hour to Honey Pig in Duluth – 24 miles from downtown Atlanta, where Im and his parents are staying this week – lasted more than an hour, but I didn't complain. He barely spoke at dinner when he filled his bowl and refilled it with grilled kimchi, bean sprouts, and pork.
Although I ventured into the part of Duluth that was known as Koreatown before the tournament started, K-town came to him as soon as the game started. "I heard them say," Keep on fighting "and say my name," Im said, referring to the Korean contingent in his gallery. "They cheered me a lot."
Vranesh said he has no problems communicating with Im, who he believes is fluent in the language of golf. If all else fails, they rely on hand signals, perhaps no more so this season than the thumbs up.