Sungjae Im was doing just about everything he could to keep pace with Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy Saturday.
And at Quail Hollow’s difficult par-3 17, the second leg of the North Carolina track’s famous “Green Mile,” he may have done too good of a job.
Im stepped on the tee of the picturesque 191-yard par-3 in solo third at eight under, four back of Schauffele as the third round of the Wells Fargo Championship came to a close.
His tee shot looked majestic from the start. The shot tracer on the CBS broadcast showed it starting just right of the flagstick and drawing slightly, right back on top of it.
“This looks promising,” CBS on-course reporter Mark Immelman said.
Indeed, the shot looked good. A potential chance to steal on a birdie where just six were made all day on Quail Hollow’s fourth most difficult hole this week. But not every golf shot that looks good pans out and Im’s didn’t in the most brutal fashion.
Im’s ball ricocheted violently off the top of the flagstick and caromed off to the right and settled in the first cut of rough beyond the pin. The normally stoic South Korean took his hat off and put his hand on his head in bewilderment.
“That was a really bad break,” said analyst Ian Baker-Finch. “Hit it exactly where he was aiming.”
The crowd behind the tee kept cheering encouragement toward Im as he gathered himself and started laughing at the awful luck.
Perhaps it was because they knew this wasn’t even the first time Im had been the victim of a horrendous break in the last two months. At the Players Championship in March, Im’s own pitch mark kept his wedge shot from spinning back into the hole.
The shot Im was left with was no picnic: A downhill lie to a short-sided pin over a chipping area with the green running away from him.
Yet, Im chipped the ball just onto the putting surface and left himself a 10-footer that he converted to stay at eight under and avoid his second-straight bogey.
His bad luck was repaid on the 18th. After driving it in the trees, hacking out and then missing the green with his third, Im holed his fourth shot from the greenside bunker and an eventful par.
He’ll start the final round four back of Schauffele and three back of McIlroy.
