PGA Tour Heavyweight Im Makes His Move

Hangzhou, China: On moving day at the Hangzhou Asian Games golf tournament, it was Korean heavyweight Im Sung-jae who took up the gauntlet.

Nine strokes off the lead in joint seventh place overnight, the 25-year-old PGA Tour star needed to find inspiration to haul himself into contention at the Westlake International Golf Club.

That’s exactly what he did, firing a six-under-par 66 to move menacingly into equal fourth spot on 197, five shots behind Hong Kong, China’s Taichi Kho, who followed up his stunning second-round 60 with a two-under 70 on Saturday. He leads on 192.

In second spot is Chinese Taipei’s Hung Chien-yao on 195 with Korean amateur Jang Yu-bin a further stroke back in third.

Level with Im on 197 are Thai Atiruj Winaicharoenchai and China’s Chen Guxin.

Macau’s Si Ngai kept alive his medal hopes with a best-of-the-day eight-under 64 to lie seventh on 199 with Im’s fellow Korean PGA Tour player Kim Si-woo also on the fringes in eighth on 200.

In the team event, Korea look odds on to claim the gold medal. They have a 54-hole score of 58-under 590 in the event in which the best three daily scores in each four-man team are counted.

Thailand are a distant second on 604 with Hong Kong, China in the bronze medal position on 605.

Singapore (609), Japan (611), Chinese Taipei (613) and China (614) are all still in the picture.

Leading Third-Round Scores, Individual

192 – Taichi Kho (Hong Kong, China) 62-60-70
195 – Hung Chien-yao (Chinese Taipei) 65-63-67
196 – Jang Yubin (Korea) 61-67-68
197 – Atiruj Winaicharoenchai (Thailand) 67-63-67; Chen Guxin (China) 63-67-67; Im Sung-jae (Korea) 66-65-66
199 – Si Ngai (Macau) 65-70-64
200 – Kim Si-woo (Korea) 66-66-68
201 – Ryan Ang (Singapore) 66-69-66
202 – Masato Sumiuchi (Japan) 63-71-68

Full Third-Round Scores, Teams

590 – Korea (190-198-202)
604 – Thailand (197-204-203)
605 – Hong Kong, China (200-194-211)
609 – Singapore (194-213-202)
611 – Japan (195-203-213)
613 – Chinese Taipei (203-199-211)
614 – China (201-204-209)
616 – India (200-205-211)
626 – Philippines (207-209-210)
638 – Vietnam (209-213-216)