Why Sungjae Im has a million reasons to be happy with T-2 finish at Wyndham Championship

Sungjae Im earned a $1 million bonus while Hideki Matsuyama, who got bounced to 11th, gets a pat on the back.

Sungjae Im didn’t win the Wyndham Championship on Sunday, but he had a million reasons to be happy with finishing tied for second.

That’s because he’s $1 million richer as he vaulted into the top 10 in the FedEx Cup point standings at the end of the regular season. Im, who entered the week at No. 15 in the season points race, picked up 245 FedEx Cup points to improve to 10th, 35 points ahead of Hideki Matsuyama, who got bounced to No. 11.

The Comcast Business Tour Top 10 rewards the top-10 finishers with $20 million in shared bonuses for their performance during the regular season. Scottie Scheffler earned a cool $4 million for finishing No. 1 in the points standings. By vaulting into the top 10, Im, who won the Shriners Hospital’s Open in October, collected an extra $1 million in his bank account while Matsuyama gets a pat on the back but no cash for finishing 11th in the regular season.

Had Im finished third or even in a three-way tie for second, they would have flipped spots and Im wouldn’t have won the bonus money. He made a birdie at 16 to move into a share of second, then got some help when John Huh made bogey at 17 to drop back to third. A bogey at the last by Im and par by Huh meant the two tied for runner-up, five strokes behind winner Tom Kim.

Will Zalatoris, who started the week at No. 11, was the only other player in the field who had a chance to crash the top 10 and make some bonus money. But he finished T-21 in the regular season finale, and Im leapfrogged Zalatoris.

It was an impressive rally by Im, who finished T-2 in his two final starts (3M Open and Wyndham Championship) to climb into the top 10, and he expressed his pleasure after the round.

“Finishing Top-10 in the season on the PGA Tour is definitely an honor, and I’m happy with it,” Im said, “but still got three Playoff events remaining and I’m going to focus on playing well.”

Here’s the top 10 at the conclusion of the FedEx Cup regular season point standings.

  1. Scottie Scheffler, $4 million
  2. Cameron Smith, $3 million
  3. Sam Burns, $2.4 million
  4. Xander Schauffele, $2.2 million
  5. Patrick Cantlay, $2 million
  6. Rory McIlroy, $1.7 million
  7. Tony Finau, $1.4 million
  8. Justin Thomas, $1.2 million
  9. Cameron Young, $1.1 million
  10. Sungjae Im, $1 million

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