Sungjae Im announced Friday that he completed his three-week basic military training in South Korea free of injuries.
Im, 27, posted on Instagram that he trained with the 9th Marine Brigade 91st Marine Battalion.
Able-bodied men in South Korea are required to serve 21 months of military service before they turn 35. However, Im and Si Woo Kim had their service reduced to three weeks of basic training and volunteer work by winning the gold medal at the Asian Games in 2023.
“Thanks to the fans who worried about me during the training camp,” Im wrote, as translated on Instagram. “I feel like I was able to finish the training without any injuries.”
A two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Im has fallen to No. 37 in the Official World Golf Ranking after missing eight of 28 cuts in 2025. He had three top-10 finishes, including solo third at the season-opening The Sentry in January.
Im’s most recent event was a T42 at last month’s Genesis Championship on the Korean PGA Tour, and he admitted that he had been concerned about how the pause for military training might impact his preparation for the 2026 season. However, he said that he is now focused on the volunteer work and returning to golf with renewed focus.
“Of course, due to three weeks of training and volunteer activities, my personal practice time will be shorter, but I will try to move forward with more focus and I believe that my abilities will be restored again,” he wrote.
Korean men can also become exempt by winning a medal in the Olympics, which Tom Kim narrowly missed out on last year when he finished eighth. Kim, 23, still has several more opportunities ahead of him to satisfy the exemption, while 34-year-old countryman Byeong Hun An is closer to approaching the age deadline.
Sang-moon Bae had won a pair of PGA Tour events and reached as high as No. 26 in the world when he returned to Korea to complete his military service in 2015. He returned in 2017 but never regained the form that had him viewed as one of the game’s rising stars.
Now 39, Bae’s one victory since his return came on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2018. He has a lone top-3 finish over the past seven seasons while primarily playing on the Korean and Asian tours, and is currently ranked No. 973.
–Field Level Media
