Hangzhou Asian Games team gold medallist Sungjae Lim has a chance to win his third title on the Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour.
Lim shaved five strokes off his score in the third round of the Genesis Championship at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea (par-72) in Incheon on Thursday for a 16-under-par 200 total.
Lim, who held a two-stroke lead the day before, will enter the final round on Friday with a one-stroke lead over second-placed Bae Yong-joon (14-under par 202).
Lim won this event in 2019 and has two wins on the Korean Tour this year, including a top-10 finish at the Woori Financial Championship.
In chaotic conditions that saw play suspended for an hour and 20 minutes due to rain and a forecast of lightning, Lim was a little shaky early on.
He traded one eagle and one birdie for one double-bogey and one bogey on the front nine and was unable to reduce his score, giving up the lead to the second group.
Lim, who was unable to reduce his score until the 12th hole, picked up five birdies in six holes from the 13th to the 18th.
“The match was suspended due to a thunderstorm while I was playing the fourth hole, and I couldn’t warm up until it resumed,” said Lim. “In the second half, I played with a lot of concentration and was able to birdie four holes in a row.”
Gwanrok’s Park Sang-hyun, who has 11 wins on the Korean Tour, finished with a 13-under-par 203 to trail Lim by three strokes.
Lim, Bae, Yongjun Bae and Park will tee off in the championship group at 10.50am on 15 January.
Jang Yubin and Cho Woo-young, who shared the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, are tied for fourth (12-under-par 204) and will join Im for the title.
Meanwhile, Jeon made a hole-in-one at the 17th (par-3) and received two SUVs for his injury. One will be given to the player and the other to his caddie.
After his second career hole-in-one, Jeon said, “I saw about 175 metres with a headwind and hit a 5-iron. I shouted ‘Genesis’ (the name of the car) about three times, hoping it would go in,” he said.
With the hole-in-one, Jeon is tied for 11th place at 8-under-par 208. 토토사이트