Four Korean golfers advance to BMW Championship

Four Koreans, Im Sung-jae, Kim Joo-hyung, Lee Kyoung-hoon and Kim Si-woo, will tee off Thursday at the second leg of the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship in Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.

Im Sung-jae hits his tee shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship golf tournament at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee on Aug. 11. [EPA/YONHAP]

Kim Joo-hyung plays his shot from the seventh tee during the final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind on Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee. [AFP/YONHAP]

Four Koreans, Im Sung-jae, Kim Joo-hyung, Lee Kyoung-hoon and Kim Si-woo, will tee off Thursday at the second leg of the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs, the BMW Championship in Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.

All four fared well enough last week in the first leg of the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs, the St. Jude Championship, to make it to the BMW Championship. While No. 11 Im and No. 26 Kim Joo-hyung are one step closer to the ultimate prize of the season, it is looking like a steep climb for No. 34 Lee and No. 55 Kim Si-woo to reach the top 30 before the end of the weekend.

The FedExCup is a three-week playoff, with the top 125 golfers on the FedExCup standings eligible to compete for the first stage in the FedExCup playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

All four Koreans landed in the top 50 last week: Im finished 12th, Kim Joo-hyung tied for 13th, Lee tied for 20th and Kim Si-woo tied for 42nd.

This week, the field drops down to 70 and Im enters the playoffs as the highest ranked Korea in 11th place, with his path to the Tour Championship looking very secure.

There are 2,000 FedExCup points available for the winner of each playoff, with second-place taking 1,200 points and third taking 760 points.

Im currently has 1,993, 48 points above No. 12 Matt Fitzpatrick. While big changes are possible during the FedExCup playoffs due to the large number of points available, it is highly unlikely for Im to be knocked all the way out of contention for the Tour Championship.

Kim Joo-hyung, now at No. 26, is becoming one of the big stories of the playoffs, paving his way to the Tour Championship with a strong finish in Memphis.

Kim Joo-hyung only earned the right to compete in the FedExCup Playoffs in the last tournament of the regular PGA season, the Wyndham Championship. As well as winning the Wyndham Championship, Kim finished seventh at the Rocket Mortgage Classic the week before and third at the Scottish Open last month.

The Wyndam victory not only secured his PGA Tour card, but meant he also become the the youngest player born outside the United States to win a PGA Tour event in 99 years.

Since the U.S. Open, Kim Joo-hyung has ranked fourth on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: approach, fifth in strokes gained: total and 12th in strokes gained: putting, and enters this week with 15 consecutive rounds at par or better, tied for the second-longest active run on Tour.

Only PGA golfers are included on the FedExCup ranking, although if a player earns his Tour card during the season, previously-earned points are added to his tally.

That allowed Kim Joo-hyung to jump straight to No. 34 last week with three top 10 finishes this season. With the 13th finish at the the St. Jude Championship, Kim Joo-hyung has now made it into the top 30.

If the 20-year-old can continue his current momentum into the second leg of the playoffs, he will be smooth sailing towards his first-ever Tour Championship.

The field for the Tour Championship will drop to the top 30 on the FedExCup standings at the end of the BMW Championship, with only the chosen 30 advancing to the final Tour Championship, where the FedExCup Champion is crowned. Advancement is based on FedExCup ranking, not on a golfer's position in each individual tournament.

On Thursday at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware, Kim Si-woo tees off at 9:40 a.m., Lee tees off at 10:35 a.m., Kim Joo-hyung tees off at 10:55 a.m. and Im tees off at 11:50 a.m.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]