Sungjae Im posted a one-under 69 on Friday to back up Thursday's 64 and take the 36-hole lead at the 2026 Truist Championship, the South Korean walking off Quail Hollow's 18th green at nine-under, one shot clear of Tommy Fleetwood and confident his Presidents Cup history at the venue is paying dividends.
Speaking through an interpreter at his post-round media stop, Im said his second round did not flow quite as smoothly as the opener but the score line still felt right. He told reporters his ball-striking was again strong, his driver was once more finding the fairway, and although his putter cooled from Thursday's heater the cumulative work from tee to green added up.
The 27-year-old framed Quail Hollow as a course where local knowledge mattered more than aggression. The interpreter relayed that Im preferred a conservative line and trusted that pars would not cost him meaningful ground, citing his Presidents Cup appearances at the venue, including the 2022 International Team's heroics, as a reason he understood where to miss.
"He knows where to miss the greens because of the Presidents Cup, so he's very familiar with the golf course," the interpreter told media. "He's happy with where he is at the moment."
Im's opening 64 came on a course that had played hard all week. By Friday afternoon Quail Hollow had softened a touch, but the field stayed bunched and the par-three 17th kept biting. Only four birdies were made there for most of Im's wave. He signed for two birdies on his front nine, traded a bogey-birdie sequence later, and walked away nodding rather than smiling.
Asked about his health, after a winter injury that kept him out of several early-2026 starts, Im said he was feeling close to 100 per cent. His interpreter said the leader was "comfortable" and added that Quail Hollow was "tough enough that aggressive play does not pay off" — a layout, in other words, designed for ball-striking patience.
The leader's final word, again through the interpreter, was on what comes next.
"He wants to keep this going for two more days," she said, "and hopefully a very good finish."
He will need to. Tommy Fleetwood, paired alongside Im on Saturday, is a stroke back at eight-under after a putter-first 67. Justin Thomas, freshly armed with a borrowed Cam Young putter, is two back. Matt Fitzpatrick is in the chasing group, defending champion Sepp Straka sat at six-under at the time of writing, and Rory McIlroy clambered back into the picture with a back-nine surge that left him four shots adrift.
Im's lead is real but small, and the Saturday morning forecast — a gusty back-nine wind off the lake — could swing the leaderboard wildly. The South Korean's last PGA Tour title came in October 2024, and he has been hovering around top-15 finishes through the 2026 swing without quite producing the closing speed of his Korn Ferry-to-Tour breakthrough years.
The man with the CJ logo on his cap is now in the position he prefers: a familiar course, ball-striking trending, and 36 holes to play. Whether he can convert that into his fourth career PGA Tour title and his first signature event win will depend on whether his Friday putter was the early sign of a slip or merely the cooler half of a hot streak.
