The nature of any Playoffs system, including the PGA Tour's ill-fitting attempt at one, is that we don't always end up with the best fighting to be crowned the best. Even the FedEx Cup and its boosted final few events doesn't do that, not really, although the concept of 'best' over the course of an entire year's golf is naturally fluid.
This year, however, the computer has spat out the standout four players on the PGA Tour. Scottie Scheffler remains the benchmark and, just as he did in 2022, will start the TOUR Championship with a two-shot lead. Viktor Hovland is in second after his sensational 61 to win the BMW. Rory McIlroy has had a chance to win both events in the Playoffs and is therefore third. Jon Rahm couldn't fall much further than fourth.
Reducing the number of tournaments from four to three has played its part and we are undeniably left with the best-case scenario. Unfortunately it guarantees precisely nothing in the way of entertainment. Scheffler might shoot 63-63 and lead by 15 shots entering the weekend. If he does let the others into it again, this will remain contrived nonsense which should be beneath the pinnacle of any sport.
By now you'd think they'd realise that, thank heavens, golf is not F1. It's not NFL. It's a sport with mass playing appeal but with a limited audience when it comes to watching, sort of like fishing in reverse except not a complete waste of everyone's time. For my money, they should try to present this sport to its adoring fans properly before attempts to win over naysayers are allowed to cheapen it.
Since his madcap decision to fly home to South Korea a week before the PGA Championship and then bomb out completely at Oak Hill, Im has been steadily improving. His long-game in particular has turned a corner of late and finishes of 14-6-7 are the result, with last week's particularly eye-catching at a long course where he'd been 56th of 70 before.
Although it was Im's short-game that kept him competitive in the first round of the BMW Championship, after that he really clicked into gear, ranking ninth, fourth and fifth in strokes-gained approach before 12 of 14 fairways was enough to be the second-best driver in the field on Sunday.
All told he finished fifth in the tee-to-green charts and just outside the top five overall after a solid but unspectacular putting week at a course which ought not to suit nearly as much as East Lake, which is also long but has always given the straight hitters more than a fighting chance. Ultimately, it's driving well that matters, however you do that.
Im has been a rock-solid driver throughout his PGA Tour career because, like Hovland, he's accurate as well as more powerful than perhaps you'd think. If that club fires in the way it did on Sunday, he will have an ideal platform as he seeks to emulate last season's effort, when second only to McIlroy in overall scoring and almost pinching the outright prize, which would've been a bit silly to say the least given his body of work.
With an excellent record at another Donald Ross course, Sedgefield, it shouldn't be a big surprise that Im has liked it here since a strong start to his debut. In 2020 he was the halfway leader (in scoring terms, if not in reality) and while quiet a year later, he returned to almost pick the pockets of both McIlroy and Scheffler and land the money in 2022.
Im's US base is here in Atlanta so he might just have benefited from that, something he's referenced previously, and while he's capable on all surfaces he's most likely to putt the lights out on greens like these. From eight shots back he's not likely to find himself in the real heat of battle but that may if anything help him land the low 72 of the week.
Like his compatriot, Kim is among the straightest hitters in this field and he's played well throughout the last month or so, finishing sixth and second in the UK before 24th and 10th across the last fortnight.
With the first of those Playoff performances allaying concerns over the injury he picked up in the Open, Kim went on to produce some excellent golf under less-than-ideal conditions last week, when his 11-under par weekend was better than all bar that of the eventual champion, Hovland.
Hovland himself won after powering through the field a week earlier and Kim could produce something similar if he's able to build on Sunday's best-of-the-day 63 and a back-nine 29 which was overshadowed by the Norwegian's stunning 28.
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