SPLASH: Sungjae Im Gets Lucky Bounce Out Of The Water

Golf is a game of lucky or unlucky breaks, am I right?

Korean golfer Sungjae Im bursted into the scene last year as a 21-year old rookie who was determined to take advantage of his first season on the world’s top tour. Im has been relentless and restless in his play, both being key reasons for his early success on the PGA TOUR. Last year, Im played in a whopping 35 events. While he wasn’t able to win any hardware in his first season, he did walk away with the Rookie of the Year Award.

Im isn’t satisfied with that progress and he is already starting off this season with a healthy tournament schedule. He has already participated in 12 events in the 2019-20 season, showing his urge to succeed. 

What makes that even more remarkable is that he doesn’t have a home in the U.S. Im and his parents go from tournament to tournament while staying in multiple hotels along the way to get as much action as possible. A guy with that type of work ethic definitely deserves some type of luck and luck he got at the WGC-Mexico.

Im stepped up to the tee box on the par 3 7th hole during the second round of the tournament this past Friday when he struck a shot that looked destined for the water. To everyone’s surprise, Im’s ball ended up emerging from the water hazard and settling a little over 20 feet away from the hole. The crowd and commentators were left in awe.

David Feherty tried to explain what just happened to the fans but could only surmise that the ball hit the concrete lining in the hazard, then hopped onto the green. Justin Leonard chimed in to say that he’s never seen anything like that happen in all his years in golf. Unfortunately, Im wasn’t able to cap off the miracle shot with a birdie but he did save par on his way to T-29th finish at the end.

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The close call and rigorous play in Mexico hasn’t slowed down Im as he’s already committed to play in the Honda Classic in just a few days. If he keeps up this crazy workload and keeps getting lucky, we might be seeing his name in contention for some majors later this year.

Cover Image Via Twitter