Im Sung-jae continued his chase for a third PGA Tour victory, by holding on to his solo lead after the second round at the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club \u2013 Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Florida<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sungjae made three birdies over his last eight holes Friday, including a 2 at the par-3 17th, to get to 9 under and take a one-shot lead over David Lipsky halfway through. Sungjae, who held a one stroke lead after the first round of 64 after carded a 69 in his second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having missed the cuts in both of his previous starts this season, Sungjae is making a comeback to top class golf after lengthy layoff while nursing a wrist injury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doug Ghim and Chandler Blanchet are tied for third. There’s a five-way tie for fifth at 5 under between the English trio of Marco Penge, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jordan Smith, Alex Smalley and Brandy Snedeker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sungjae is now the lone PGA Tour winner among the top four players on the leaderboard. His best finish at the championships is tied fourth in 2019, having missed the cut in his last appearance her in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sungjae is seeking to join K.J. Choi (2002, 2006) as only the second South Korean player to win the Valspar Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Lipsky is in search of his first victory but has made four cuts in five starts this season with 15 of 16 rounds par-or-better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghim reached 9-under with an eagle at the par-5 11th<\/sup> hole before dropping two shots in his last four holes as he seeks first Tour title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tour rookie Blanchet finished runner-up in his sixth and most recent start this season at the Puerto Rico Open, after missing the cut in his first five starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marco Penge, Matt Fitzpatrick and Jordan Smith are among a group of five players at 5-under (T5). They seek to join Luke Donald (2012) and Paul Casey (2018, 2019) as players from England to win the Valspar Championship<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tied with them are Alex Smalley (T5\/-5), who is seeking his first Tour title and nine-time Tour winner Brandt Snedeker, who made his first cut in five starts this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brooks Koepka posts a back nine 4-under 31 en route to a second-round 67 to end tied 10th at four-under. Koepka made five birdies four birdies in a six-hole stretch, including three in a row on Nos. 13, 14 and 15 before closing with three pars for a 67. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After dropping three strokes on his last three holes for a first-round 69, 2015 winner Jordan Spieth is a further stroke behind after finishing bogey, bogey for a second-round 70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defending champion Viktor Hovland misses the cut for the first time on Tour since the 2025 with a three over finish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Van Pelt leads in Tucson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, 50-year-old Bo Van Pelt leads the field by two strokes after opening with 9-under 62 at the 2026 Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a career low for Van Pelt, who is making his debut at the tournament. He is looking to become the 25th player to win on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and Korn Ferry Tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Making his season and also his tournament debut, Thongchai Jaidee posted 7-under 64 to to tie in second spot with World Golf Hall of Fame member Retief Goosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sixty-eight-year-old Bernhard Langer is tied fourth with a 6-under 65. Defending champion Steven Alker posted even-par 71 to sit T45.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tournament host and 13-time Champions Tour winner Jerry Kelly carded 2-under 69 (T25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second-Round Leaderboard<\/strong> (Valspar Championship)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First-Round Leaderboard<\/strong> (Cologuard Classic<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Im Sung-jae continued his chase for a third PGA Tour victory, by holding on to his solo lead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-10785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-golf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae.jpg",2002,1131,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-768x434.jpg",640,362,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-1024x578.jpg",640,361,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-1536x868.jpg",1536,868,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae.jpg",2002,1131,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Im-Sung-Jae.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10786,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions\/10786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pos.<\/strong><\/td> Player<\/strong><\/td> R1<\/strong><\/td> R2<\/strong><\/td> Total<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 1<\/td> Sungjae Im<\/td> 64<\/td> 69<\/td> 133 (-9)<\/td><\/tr> 2<\/td> David Lipsky<\/td> 69<\/td> 65<\/td> 134 (-8)<\/td><\/tr> T3<\/td> Doug Ghim<\/td> 68<\/td> 67<\/td> 135 (-7)<\/td><\/tr> T3<\/td> Chandler Blanchet<\/td> 69<\/td> 66<\/td> 135 (-7)<\/td><\/tr> T5<\/td> Five players<\/em><\/td> <\/em><\/td> <\/em><\/td> 137 (-5)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n <\/td> Player<\/strong><\/td> To Par<\/strong><\/td> Scores<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> 1<\/td> Bo Van Pelt<\/td> -9<\/td> 62<\/td><\/tr> T2<\/td> Thongchai Jaidee<\/td> -7<\/td> 64<\/td><\/tr> T2<\/td> Retief Goosen<\/td> -7<\/td> 64<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"