Sungjae Im Cruises "Tied 7th, 4 Shots Behind"... McIlroy Tied 3rd

Arnold Palmer Invitational Day 2: 2 Under Par, Kwon Seon-deu Leads, Laird 2nd, DeChambeau 6th, An Byeong-hun Tied 21st

Im Sung-jae is teeing off on the 7th hole on the second day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Orlando, Florida, USA = Getty Images / Multibits Photo by Multibits

[Asia Economy Reporter No Woo-rae] World ranking 17th Im Sung-jae (23, CJ Logistics) is sailing smoothly.

On the 6th (Korean time), at Bay Hill Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, USA (par 72, 7,454 yards), during the second day of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational (total prize money $9.3 million), he added 2 under par to maintain a tie for 7th place (5 under par 139). Corey Conners (Canada) leads (9 under par 135), Martin Laird (Scotland) is 2nd (8 under par 136), and Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Viktor Hovland (Norway) are tied for 3rd (7 under par 137).

Starting from a tie for 7th place, 3 strokes behind the leader, Im Sung-jae recorded 1 eagle, 3 birdies, 1 bogey, and 1 double bogey. In the front nine, he exchanged a birdie on the 2nd hole (par 4) for a bogey on the 6th hole (par 5), failing to reduce his score. In the back nine, after a birdie on the 10th hole, he suffered a double bogey on the 13th hole (par 4) by hitting his second shot into the water. Fortunately, he changed the momentum with a birdie on the 14th hole (par 3) and secured an eagle on the 16th hole (par 5), ending the round on a high note.

His shot accuracy stood out with a fairway hit rate of 92.86% and a greens in regulation rate of 72.22%. His strokes gained putting was also excellent at 2.179 strokes. He is 4 strokes behind the leader, in a position to aim for his second career win after winning the Honda Classic last March. Im Sung-jae has shown particularly strong performances at the challenging Bay Hill course, entering the PGA Tour top 3 for the first time in 2019 and finishing 3rd last year.

While Conners reduced his score by 3 strokes to maintain the top of the leaderboard for two consecutive days, McIlroy dropped from the co-lead by shooting 1 under par. 'The Hulk' Bryson DeChambeau (USA) is watching for an opportunity from 6th place (6 under par 138). In Korea, An Byeong-hun (30, CJ Logistics) advanced to the 3rd round tied for 21st place (2 under par 142). However, Lee Kyung-hoon (30) and Kang Sung-hoon (34, both CJ Logistics) were cut off, tied for 87th place (5 over par 149).