Im shoots 62 Sunday for 4-stroke triumph
LAS VEGAS — Sungjae Im turned a shootout into a one-man show Sunday in Las Vegas, running the tables with seven birdies in eight holes around the turn for a 9-under 62 and a four-shot victory in the Shriners Children’s Open.
Im was among four players who had at least a share of the lead on the front nine of the TPC Summerlin on an ideal day of scoring with little wind.
When he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole, the third-toughest on the course, to tie for the lead, the 23-year-old South Korean was just getting started.
He closed out the front nine with a simple up-and-down short of the green on the par-5 ninth to take the lead, then ran off four more birdies, the best of that lot on No. 10 when he went from a fairway bunker to 25 feet and made the putt.
No one else could keep up. His strongest challenger, Matthew Wolff, rolled in an 18-foot birdie on the ninth to keep pace. He had two misses off the tee that cost him.
Wolff had to pitch out to the fairway from high grass right of the 10th, leading to his first bogey. And he was deep in the bunker on the par-5 13th and barely got it out into a nasty lie, advanced that only about 90 yards and took bogey that felt much worse.
Wolff recovered with two birdies for a 68 — his 12th round in the 60s in as many tries at the TPC Summerlin — and was runner-up.
