Im, Mitchell share halfway lead in Miami

MIAMI: South Korean Im SungJae, aiming to parlay his Web.com tour dominance to US PGA Tour success, shared the Honda Classic halfway lead with American Keith Mitchell on Friday.

Im, 20, fired a six-under par 64 on the Champion course at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, for a 36-hole total of sixunder par 134. He was tied atop the leaderboard with Mitchell, who posted a 66, with 2009 US Open champion Lucas Glover a shot back on 135 after a 69.

Im birdied three of his first four holes and three of his final six on the way, his six-under effort tied for best round of the day.

“All the shots that I wanted to hit turned out the way I wanted,” said Im, who hit five approach shots to within 12 feet of the pin.

Canadian Adam Svensson also posted a 64 to land on 136, sharing fourth place with eight other players in a group that included 2018 PGA Tour Player of the Year Brooks Koepka (69), New Zealand’s Danny Lee (67) and Sweden’s Freddie Jacobson (67).

A total of 42 players were within five shots of the lead.

Defending champion Justin Thomas made the cut on the number with a four-over par 74 for a two-over total.

Im, the youngest of the US tour’s rookies this season, went off in the first group of the day at 6:45 a.m. and made a quick move with birdies at the second third and fourth holes.

He would add three more before his lone bogey of the day at 16, and he drilled a 25-foot birdie putt at the 18th to cap his round.

Mitchell had five birdies and a bogey in his four-under effort, and after three missed cuts on the tour’s West Coast Swing was delighted to be playing on the Bermuda grass greens of Florida.

Thomas’s hopes of a repeat title on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course faded with his four-over effort, during which he struggled with a “dead arm” as well as his concentration.