By putting on what was statistically the best final round performance by a Tour winner in weeks, K.J (Kyoung-Ju) Choi became the first South Korean to win a PGA Tour event at last week's Compaq Classic of New Orleans. He joins Japan's Isao Aoki and Shigeki Maruyama and Taiwan's T.C. Chen as only Asians to win on the Tour.
Choi's final round of 67 was the first sub-70 final round by a winner on the Tour since Vijay Singh's 68 on Sunday at the Shell Houston Open in late March. And similar to Singh's final round performance, Choi's final 18 holes included some spectacular shots, such as a near hole-in eagle from the 16th fairway and a chip-in birdie from the back of the par-3 17th green. Overall, the sturdy Korean birdied four holes in back nine, during which some of his challengers like Chris DiMarco, Mike Sposa, Dan Forsman, Dudley Hart and Geoff Ogilvy, fell out of contention. In the end, K.J. turned his one-shot advantage over these four golfers after 10 holes into a convincing four-shot victory.
The 31-year-old Choi is the 18th different winner on the PGA Tour this year in 19 events, a startling stat that underlines the depth of the Tour. Choi, along with Jerry Kelly, Matt Gogel, Len Mattiace, Kevin Sutherland, Ian Leggat, Matt Kuchar and Craig Perks, is yet another first-time winner of a Tour event so far in 2002. Choi currently ranks 15th on the PGA Tour money list and 76th in the Official World Golf Ranking, both career-highs.
Okay, enough with numbers. How about the win's impact on Korea and its amateur golf scene?
As a native Korean residing in Canada, I can't fathom how big a deal the win must have been back home. My mother, an avid golf fan and an early riser, was up in her usual hours of the morning (K.J was playing the last few holes around 5:30 p.m. EST Sunday, which was 6:30 a.m. Monday in Korea) to watch Choi win, and I am sure there were many others who did the same. When Se Ri Pak stormed to the LPGA circuit in 1998 with two major titles as a rookie, Korea was bitten by the golf bug and has since remained passionate about golf. The game itself is still elitist as far as participation and access are concerned, but thanks to the advent of specialty channels that cover many of PGA, LPGA, European PGA and Senior PGA Tour tournaments, the popularity of golf has never been higher.
