Getty Sung Kang of Korea plays a shot during the continuation of the weather delayed third round at the AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club on May 12, 2019 in Dallas, Texas.
Whoever wins the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson this weekend will have fought through rain and a soggy course to get there. Yesterday’s Round 3 action ended early due to a weather delay, causing early tee times Sunday to make up for the lost time.
Heading into the official final round Sunday afternoon in Dallas, South Korea’s Sung Kang leads with a 19-under par, three strokes ahead of Matt Every. The former surged ahead on Day Two with a 10-under 61. Every crept ahead to 18-under just before the rain delay, but fell back behind after four straight bogeys on the back-9.
Kang has yet to win a PGA Tour title, while Every hasn’t won one outside of a pair of Arnold Palmer Invitationals in 2014 and 2015. That doesn’t mean the Jeju (South Korea) native hasn’t seen professional success in the states or abroad. Let’s look at his professional career.
Sung Kang Best PGA Tour Finish & International Victories
Sung Kang seems pretty relaxed heading into the final round at the @attbyronnelson with a three-stroke lead 😴
Kang turned pro in 2007, but didn’t qualify for the PGA and Web.com Tours until 2011. According to his PGA Tour bio, the 31-year old “has played on the Korean PGA, Asian PGA, One Asia and Japan Golf Tours.”
It was on the One Asia that he saw his biggest successes. He took home the 2013 CJ Invitational Hosted by K.J. Choi and the 2013 Kolon Korea Open. For both titles, he tallied 1 billion South Korean Won, which is about $850,000 in U.S. dollars.
Kang has quietly compiled an impressive amount of prize money since turning pro in 2011. Between his time on the PGA and Web.com Tours, he has earned $6.372 million. Adding in the international victories, Kang has accumulated over $8 million in career prize winnings.
On the PGA Tour, he has placed 2nd once, 3rd twice and finished in the top-10 on 11 different occasions. The 2nd-place showing came at the 2017 Shell Houston Open, where he lost to Russell Henry by three strokes.
The next best was the 2018 Quicken Loans National, an event dominated by Francesco Molinari. Kang lost by nine strokes, but earned just under a half a million bucks.
A win on Sunday would stand as the biggest accomplishment of Kang’s 12-year career to date. Building momentum for a potential majors run next weekend at the PGA Championship would be even better.