Getty Images
We can’t prove, definitively, that Sungjae Im is Georgia’s biggest soccer fan from South Korea, but he will definitely try for his partner this week at the Zurich Classic.
“I taught him about football in Georgia. Aren’t you a fan of Georgia now?” Keith Mitchell said during a team media briefing after the tour Thursday.
“Georgia admire!” replied Im, who usually speaks English through an interpreter.
“A big Georgia fan,” Mitchell added.
“Bulldog!” Im said while both players laughing
“So now he’s the biggest Georgia fan in South Korea. He’s based in Georgia now,” Mitchell said.
One reporter went so far as to call the pairing, which came just a few weeks before the commitment deadline, “golf’s latest budding romance.” (Our Dylan Dieter has a story of how this team formed here.)
The duo, Honda Classic winners—Mitchell won at Palm Beach Gardens in 2019 while M won the following year—opened with a 62 on best ball on Thursday and repeated on Saturday. A pair with 67 in rotation on Friday, Im and Mitchell find themselves only one quarterback from Windham Clark and Beau Hossler heading into the final round at 25-under.
While the partnership wasn’t born out of the duo’s now shared interest in Georgia football (Mitchell University), it turns out that Im was in fact the one who started it.
“So when it first became a team event, I remember Sungjae was a rookie, and all he did was just grin and a high five and skip it. Man, this guy’s going to be really good,” Mitchell said Thursday. “So I joked one day, I was Like, ‘Hey, we need to play Zurich,’ and he already had a partner. This year he finally thought my game was good enough to play with and asked me to play, and of course I said yes.
“I wasn’t planning on playing, and when you get the chance to play with such a superstar, you say yes.”
With Mitchell entering the week as the No. 50 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, they make up one of only six pairs in the field of two Top 50 players. Im the number 17 in the world.
But all week, Em played like the star Mitchell says he is. On Saturday, he made seven birdies on his ball, six on the front nine, with Mitchell tackle on three on the back nine.
“It was honestly great. The front nine was some of the best golf I’ve ever seen, six-under-eight holes,” said Mitchell. “It was fun to be a part of. I can only help him in two holes. I ended up equalizing one of them and being dumbfounded, but it didn’t matter. He was playing well. I was partying with him and watching him roll.”
Mitchell didn’t lose everything all week even if he failed to win on Sunday. Im taught him some Korean words and phrases as well.
“Team captain. Team captain Sungjae taught me Korean because he’s the captain of my team,” Mitchell said Thursday as Im responded with the Korean word.
And while Im picking up on Mitchell’s love of Bulldogs, it’s safe to say he wouldn’t copy his signature wardrobe choices.
a reporter asked on Saturday: Sungjae, after playing Keith, have you ever thought about wearing a mask?
“For me, no,” Im said as everyone started laughing.
Still the match plan for Sunday.
“Lasers and smiles,” Mitchell said.