Sungjae Im’s PGA prep: Winning a tournament in South Korea on Sunday

Some players like playing the week before a major championship. Some prefer an off week right before.

Before teeing it up in this week’s PGA Championship, Sungjae Im decided he was going to play a Korean PGA event.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Im, the PGA Tour’s ironman, tied for eighth two Sundays ago at the Wells Fargo Championship and then hopped on a plane home to South Korea, where he competed in last week’s Woori Financial Group Championship. Oh, and as the only played ranked better than No. 162 in the field, he won it with a nifty up-and-down sandy birdie on his final hole.

The KPGA start was Im’s first on his home tour since 2017. He was supposed to play this event last year but had to withdraw prior to the first round after testing positive for COVID-19. He’d also miss the PGA at Southern Hills the following week.

After Sunday’s win, Im is riding a streak of seven straight top-25s into Oak Hill.