Lim Sung-jae has made a comeback with his best performance of the season. Ahn Byung-hoon also continued his best performance as a Korean player in the U.S. PGA Tour this year. This intensified the competition for men’s golf qualification at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Lim lost two pars in the fourth round of the Wells Fargo Championship (total prize money of 20 million U.S. dollars), a special PGA Tour event, held at Quail Holo Club (par 71) in Charlotte, North Carolina on the morning of the 13th (Korea time). Lim started the third place alone, but lost two pars with two birdies and four bogeys on the last day, falling to a tie for fourth. However, he has managed to improve his faltering performance, which he had only one top 10 entry in 12 PGA Tour competitions earlier. Lim has rarely been in the top 10 since tying for fifth at The Sentry, which was his first competition this year. However, he has been on the rise since failing to make the Masters cut, the first major men’s golf competition in 2024. He bounced back to tied for 12th at the RBC Heritage, and won the Korean PGA Tour Woori Finance Championship, which he followed. Later, the CJ Cup byron Nelson of the PGA Tour withdrew due to symptoms of a cold, but he broke his own record of the year at the Wells Fargo Championship and entered the top 10 for the second time this season.
Lim has revived his competition with Ahn to qualify for the Paris Olympics. The two are effectively vying for the berth to qualify for the Paris Olympics. While Kim Joo-hyung, ranking 23rd in men’s golf, has virtually won one berth before the event, Ahn Byung-hoon, ranking 32nd, and Im Seong-jae, ranking 38th, are vying for the berth. Two berths for the Olympics will be granted based on the world ranking announced immediately after the U.S. Open, this year’s third major competition, on April 17.
Ahn, who has the best performance in the PGA tour this year, also finished third with 9-under 275 overall by reducing his pars by five on the last day. Ahn has experience playing with Wang at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when golf has returned to an official Olympic sport. Im Sung-jae played with Kim at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Im Sung-jae had experience in team gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year with Kim Si-woo, Jo Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin who are active on the KPGA tour.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Island won the title at the championship. McIlroy cut down on six shots and beat Xander Schauffley of the U.S., who shot even par with 17-under 267 overall, to win his fourth trophy of the championship.
BY: 사설토토