Honda Classic Recap: Im Secures First PGA Victory

Before most golf fans had heard of Viktor Hovland or Collin Morikawa or Matthew Wolff, or even Joaquin Niemann, there was Sungjae Im.

All four 20-somethings won PGA Tour events before Im, but all along, he was better than they. He just didn't have their pedigree – and a win.

Im did not gain fame playing in college or as a top-ranked amateur; born on tiny Jeju Island in South Korea, he turned pro at 17 – SEVENTEEN! -- and headed to the Japan Tour. He arrived in the United States two years ago and promptly won his first event on the Korn Ferry Tour. Before turning 20, Im was ranked in the top-100 OWGR.

Now, at 21, Im can call himself a PGA Tour champion. He had the best game and the steadiest nerves on Sunday at treacherous PGA National, shooting a 4-under 66 to capture the Honda Classic by one stroke over Canadian Mackenzie Hughes. England's Tommy Fleetwood, a top-10 player but still seeking his first PGA Tour victory, did not handle the pressure nearly as well as Im, or Hughes, for that matter, and wound up third.

It's seems unfathomable to say that a 21-year-old's win was long overdue, but Im showed his brilliance from his very first event as a PGA Tour member, tying for fourth at the 2018 Safeway Open. Since then, he has piled up high finish after high finish while winning Rookie of the Year, climbing the world rankings and playing in more tournaments than anyone else on Tour.

Along the way, Wolff, Morikawa, Niemann and Hovland – in that order – won tournaments before him, all by age 22. But he was higher ranked and he was the one selected to play for the Internationals in the Presidents Cup late last year.

Now in his second year on Tour, Im has a win, second, a third and seven top-25s this season – and it's barely March. He's not elite in any one area, but top-40 in five of the six strokes-gained categories. The only outlier is SG around the green. But there was Im on Sunday, after botching his third shot on the par-5 18th, faced with a 60-foot bunker shot. He smoothly dropped it to two feet, saved par and won by a single stroke.

And just before that, Im tamed the famed Bear Trap, playing the three-hole stretch in 2-under-par.

Very often we see golfers who get their maiden win take a step or two back, regress for a while as they enjoy their new-found status, especially the young ones. Im is now ranked 25th in the world rankings, but we suspect that will not happen with him. We still envision Im being the Tour's iron man, rarely taking a week off. He's in the field this week at Bay Hill, he'll of course be in THE PLAYERS the week after and is also an early commit to the Valspar the week after that.

Just as a reminder, Im finished top-five at both Bay Hill and Copperhead in his debut at both tracks a year ago.

So when will Im take another break? Well, we already know he'll be adding a tournament to his 2020 schedule: the Masters.

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A quick note about the Honda Classic. Honda is one of the longest-standing partners on the PGA Tour. It has been the title sponsor of this event for almost four decades – since 1982. It can't be happy with what's been happening to its tournament. It may be the biggest casualty of the condensed schedule, with top players staying away in droves the past two years. But the problem goes deeper than that. For the sixth year in a row, the strength of field, as determined by the OWGR website, has gone down.

Year        SOF
2014       494
2015       466
2016       446
2017       387
2018       375
2019       298
2020       261

That 261? That's close to what the SOF was at the 3M Open in Minneapolis last year. How long can this continue? How long can Honda and the Tour let it continue?

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a world-class player – he's now back in the top-10 in the world. But he continues to be dogged by having not won on the PGA Tour. Everything aligned for him this week – poor field, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler missing the cut, holding the 54-hole lead. But he did not handle the situation well. He couldn't convert what Pau Azinger described as an easy sand save on 13 and bogeyed. Then, after draining a long birdie putt on 17, needing only a birdie on the par-5 18th to tie Im, he inexplicably rinsed his second shot. Nerves. Fleetwood has won five times on the European Tour, but until he wins on the PGA Tour, there will be questions. That shot on 18 will only lead to more questions, many inside Fleetwood's own head, the next time he's in contention.

Mackenzie Hughes
Hughes had made 11 starts this season, nine of them missed cuts with nothing inside the top-50. Now, with a solo runner-up, he's come close to securing his card for next season. So many golfers rely on just a handful of good weeks to make their entire year. Hughes, who has done little since winning the 2016 RSM Classic, is no different. Even if Hughes hadn't benefited from a favorable drop after sending his second shot on 18 into the stands, it was still a great week for the Canadian. Shooting 66-66 on the weekend at PGA National is the real deal. Still, there's little to suggest Hughes will suddenly become relevant in fantasy golf or otherwise. 

Daniel Berger
Berger has been trying to make it back to the higher echelons of golf for a few years now. He finally may be getting close. He notched a third straight top-10 with a tie for fourth at the Honda, following up on Pebble Beach and Phoenix. But Berger is not in the Bay Hill field this week and, still outside the top-100 OWGR, has not qualified for THE PLAYERS, either. It's a terrible bit of luck to have to take two weeks off when things are going so well.

Byeong Hun An
Like Im until Sunday, An is looking for his first PGA Tour win. He's a former U.S. Amateur champ and 2015 European Tour Rookie of the Year. He's had numerous close calls. He tied for fourth at PGA National. He just can't get over the hump, and it's because he can't putt. But at Honda he ranked 33rd in the field in strokes gained: putting. How much better can someone ranked close to 200th on the season in SG putting actually putt? An will have to do better.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka said his knee is fine, so maybe he just needs some reps. He got only two rounds in the Honda, looking pretty mediocre in missing the cut. Koepka has played only 17 rounds since the Tour Championship in August, 14 of which have come in 2020. Still, that's not a lot now that we're in March. 

Rickie Fowler
Fowler has fallen outside the top-25 in the world – he was in the top-10 a year ago at this time – so he's been struggling for a while. But when he doesn't contend at Phoenix and then misses the cut at the Honda, two tournaments that had been in his annual wheelhouse, well, then that's a deeper concern.

Viktor Hovland
We said it before the Honda so we're allowed to say it after: Hovland had virtually no chance to do well, and he didn't in an emphatic trunk-slam. For one, it's so hard to return to Earth just four days after your maiden PGA Tour win. Second, Hovland admittedly can't chip, and it's really hard to handle PGA National when you can't scramble. Hovland should be fine, though maybe not immediately. After all, he just came into a lot of cash.

Justin Rose
Rose missed the cut at the Honda, and the former world No. 1 now sits 13th in the rankings. It hasn't been a steep and fast fall from the top standing about 14 months ago, but he's clearly not the same golfer, either. Rose won three times in 2017, twice in 2018 and once in 2019. That last win was at Torrey Pines more than a year ago. 

Joaquin Niemann
When Niemann won the season-opening Greenbrier, it was as if he was saying that he, too, was a young star-in-the-making not to be overlooked amid the ballyhooed arrival of Hovland, Morikawa and Wolff. Niemann has turned 21 since then, but that's been his only milestone in that time. He's played 10 events, four of them missed cuts, including PGA National. Niemann has only one top-10 in that span, and that was in the small field at the Tournament of Champions.

Keith Mitchell
Mitchell talked confidently coming into his Honda title defense, but he didn't survive for the weekend. Really, he's played well only a handful of times since his breakthrough win a year ago. He's now well outside the top-100 OWGR, with little indication of an immediate return.

Emiliano Grillo
Grillo had played 10 times this season heading to Puerto Rico a week ago, making only five cuts with zero top-25s. He then proceeded to tie for third at the opposite-field event. Well, Grillo returned to real tournaments at the Honda, and he missed another cut. He's looking at a second straight season outside the top-100 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Denny McCarthy
McCarthy had made 12 straight cuts before missing the weekend at the Honda, the most on the PGA Tour this season. We all need the foot soldiers when looking to go 6-for-6 in DFS play. Talor Gooch and Maverick McNealy now have the most in succession season-to-date with 11.