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Sungjae Im takes one-shot lead into the weekend
Posted on
January 23, 2021
by
The Editorial Team in ,
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

January 21-24
PGA West Stadium Course &
Nicklaus Tournament Course, La Quinta, California
$6,700,000
Round 1, Round 3, Round 4




Sungjae Im shot seven birdies in a bogey-free 7-under 65 on the Stadium Course to take a one-shot lead into the weekend.

"I'm pretty satisfied with how I played all of my shots," said Im, who has felt a big improvement in his putting this year. "Speaking of putting, I started drawing a line on the ball as I visualize my putts, and that seemed to work pretty well today."


Overnight leader Brandon Hagy is among a group of five players tied in second place. He held a one-shot lead after an opening 64 but made two early bogeys at the 14th and 15th. He was poised to regain a share of the lead at 11-under when he bogeyed his final hole to sign for a 70.

Nick Taylor, who held the second round lead at the Sony Open two weeks ago, shot a 66 on the Stadium Course to join Hagy in second place.



"My game feels really good right now, so hopefully it keeps peaking. It was a lot of intimidating tee shots, iron shots into greens. I feel like I missed in the right places. I drove it really nice on the par-5s and gave myself pretty easy looks on a few of them."

His impressive form is a good sign ahead of his Pebble Beach title defense in three weeks.


Tournament host Phil Mickelson carded 18 consecutive pars for the first time in his PGA Tour career and posted an even-par 72 at PGA West to follow his opening 2-over 74 and finished seven strokes outside the cut line.

โ€œFor that to be the first time, it's really shocking,โ€ said Mickelson. โ€œSurprising, because I really try to hit fairways and centers of the greens and just make easy pars. Looking at the scores, you're going to say, โ€˜Gosh, you played 2-over par, pretty easy courses, pretty poor start.' But I feel like there were a lot of good things to take from the week, even though the scorecard's not going to show it.โ€


โ€œI'm driving the ball well; I'm hitting a lot of good shots. My putting needs some work, but I have been putting well for a long period of time, so I don't feel as though it's going to require a lot of effort. If you look at the scorecard, it's pathetic. I'm not denying that. But I think that it's a little bit closer than it looks.โ€

Having played the first two rounds on two different courses, the final two rounds will be played on the Stadium Course.




Pos.
Player
To Par
R1
R2
Total
1
Sungjae Im
-11
68
65
133
T2
Abraham Ancer
-10
69
65
134
T2
Tony Finau
-10
68
66
134
T2
Brandon Hagy
-10
64
70
134
T2
Si Woo Kim
-10
66
68
134
T2
Nick Taylor
-10
68
66
134
T7
Doug Ghim
-9
67
68
135
T7
Emiliano Grillo
-9
69
66
135
T7
Francesco Molinari
-9
69
66
135
T10
Brian Harman
-8
68
68
136
T10
Charley Hoffman
-8
70
66
136
T10
Max Homa
-8
66
70
136
T10
John Huh
-8
68
68
136
T10
Andrew Putnam
-8
67
69
136
T10
Adam Schenk
-8
68
68
136
T10
Roger Sloan
-8
69
67
136
T10
Brendan Steele
-8
68
68
136
T18
Ryan Armour
-7
70
67
137
T18
Paul Casey
-7
72
65
137
T18
James Hahn
-7
68
69
137
T18
Luke List
-7
69
68
137
T18
Sam Ryder
-7
67
70
137
T18
Rory Sabbatini
-7
68
69
137
T18
Josh Teater
-7
68
69
137
T18
Richy Werenski
-7
69
68
137
T26
Byeong Hun An
-6
65
73
138
T26
Austin Cook
-6
68
70
138
T26
Cameron Davis
-6
68
70
138
T26
Adam Hadwin
-6
72
66
138
T26
Matt Jones
-6
70
68
138
T26
Chris Kirk
-6
68
70
138
T26
Adam Long
-6
68
70
138
T26
Ben Martin
-6
67
71
138
T26
Alex Noren
-6
67
71
138
T26
Kyle Stanley
-6
70
68
138
T26
Gary Woodland
-6
70
68
138
T37
Bronson Burgoon
-5
71
68
139
T37
Tyler Duncan
-5
67
72
139
T37
Rickie Fowler
-5
73
66
139
T37
David Hearn
-5
68
71
139
T37
Kramer Hickok
-5
70
69
139
T37
Patton Kizzire
-5
69
70
139
T37
Russell Knox
-5
69
70
139
T37
Andrew Landry
-5
70
69
139
T37
Kyoung-Hoon Lee
-5
68
71
139
T37
Jamie Lovemark
-5
68
71
139
T37
Tyler McCumber
-5
69
70
139
T37
Henrik Norlander
-5
71
68
139
T37
Charl Schwartzel
-5
67
72
139
T37
Chase Seiffert
-5
72
67
139
T37
Brian Stuard
-5
74
65
139
T37
Michael Thompson
-5
67
72
139
T37
Jimmy Walker
-5
69
70
139
T37
Matthew Wolff
-5
72
67
139
T37
Erik van Rooyen
-5
70
69
139
T56
Patrick Cantlay
-4
69
71
140
T56
Sebastian Cappelen
-4
70
70
140
T56
Wyndham Clark
-4
70
70
140
T56
Rhein Gibson
-4
70
70
140
T56
Talor Gooch
-4
74
66
140
T56
William Gordon
-4
72
68
140
T56
Harry Hall
-4
70
70
140
T56
Bo Hoag
-4
71
69
140
T56
Zach Johnson
-4
72
68
140
T56
Martin Laird
-4
66
74
140
T56
Hank Lebioda
-4
69
71
140
T56
Nelson Ledesma
-4
70
70
140
T56
Maverick McNealy
-4
67
73
140
T56
Rob Oppenheim
-4
69
71
140
T56
Doc Redman
-4
70
70
140
T56
Vaughn Taylor
-4
73
67
140
T56
Cameron Tringale
-4
68
72
140
CUT
Bill Haas
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Anirban Lahiri
-3
68
73
141
CUT
Ryan Moore
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Cheng Tsung Pan
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Pat Perez
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Chez Reavie
-3
71
70
141
CUT
Scottie Scheffler
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Scott Stallings
-3
74
67
141
CUT
Vincent Whaley
-3
69
72
141
CUT
Tim Wilkinson
-3
70
71
141
CUT
Akshay Bhatia
-2
72
70
142
CUT
Luke Donald
-2
72
70
142
CUT
Jason Dufner
-2
74
68
142
CUT
Brian Gay
-2
74
68
142
CUT
Lanto Griffin
-2
69
73
142
CUT
Fabián Gómez
-2
70
72
142
CUT
Charles Howell III
-2
72
70
142
CUT
Joohyung Kim
-2
69
73
142
CUT
Danny Lee
-2
70
72
142
CUT
Troy Merritt
-2
69
73
142
CUT
Xinjun Zhang
-2
70
72
142
CUT
Aaron Baddeley
-1
68
75
143
CUT
Sam Burns
-1
77
66
143
CUT
Joel Dahmen
-1
69
74
143
CUT
Russell Henley
-1
72
71
143
CUT
Jim Herman
-1
73
70
143
CUT
Satoshi Kodaira
-1
69
74
143
CUT
Brooks Koepka
-1
72
71
143
CUT
Denny McCarthy
-1
73
70
143
CUT
Ted Potter, Jr.
-1
72
71
143
CUT
Patrick Reed
-1
68
75
143
CUT
J.J. Spaun
-1
70
73
143
CUT
Kevin Stadler
-1
72
71
143
CUT
Ben Taylor
-1
71
72
143
CUT
Kristoffer Ventura
-1
68
75
143
CUT
John Augenstein (a)
E
72
72
144
CUT
Lucas Glover
E
71
73
144
CUT
Mark Hubbard
E
68
76
144
CUT
Kelly Kraft
E
70
74
144
CUT
Grayson Murray
E
69
75
144
CUT
Kevin Na
E
75
69
144
CUT
Sean O'Hair
E
71
73
144
CUT
Cameron Percy
E
73
71
144
CUT
Scott Piercy
E
70
74
144
CUT
Patrick Rodgers
E
69
75
144
CUT
Kevin Streelman
E
68
76
144
CUT
Kevin Tway
E
72
72
144
CUT
Mark Anderson
1
70
75
145
CUT
Beau Hossler
1
73
72
145
CUT
Peter Malnati
1
73
72
145
CUT
Bo Van Pelt
1
75
70
145
CUT
Aaron Wise
1
71
74
145
CUT
Tom Hoge
2
71
75
146
CUT
Phil Mickelson
2
74
72
146
CUT
Seung-Yul Noh
2
74
72
146
CUT
Michael Block
3
74
73
147
CUT
Scott Brown
3
72
75
147
CUT
Robby Shelton
3
74
73
147
CUT
Brandt Snedeker
3
73
74
147
CUT
Hudson Swafford
3
71
76
147
CUT
Martin Trainer
3
70
77
147
CUT
Nick Watney
3
74
73
147
CUT
Chris Baker
4
77
71
148
CUT
Brice Garnett
4
70
78
148
CUT
Michael Gligic
4
71
77
148
CUT
Scott Harrington
4
73
75
148
CUT
Camilo Villegas
4
69
79
148
CUT
Sepp Straka
5
72
77
149
CUT
Steve Stricker
5
75
74
149
CUT
Keegan Bradley
6
73
77
150
CUT
Chesson Hadley
6
77
73
150
CUT
J.T. Poston
6
70
80
150
CUT
Rafael Campos
7
74
77
151
CUT
Michael Kim
7
78
73
151
CUT
Nate Lashley
7
73
78
151
CUT
Cameron Champ
8
77
75
152
CUT
Michael Gellerman
8
72
80
152
CUT
Steve Jones
9
73
80
153
CUT
Hunter Mahan
9
76
77
153
CUT
Matthew NeSmith
9
78
75
153
CUT
Sung Kang
10
77
77
154
CUT
Joseph Bramlett
11
79
76
155
CUT
John Senden
11
81
74
155
CUT
Matt Every
12
84
72
156
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