22nd March|South Korea’s KJ Choi continued his recent run of good form by finishing 2nd in the USPGA Tour’s Transitions Championship at Innisbrook. Choi shot an impressive final round of 4 under par 67 to finish just 1 shot behind winner Jim Furyk of the United States.

The strong finish was doubly satisfying for the man known as “The Tank” as it moved him up from 75th to 47th in the Official World Golf Rankings. That means that as of now, Choi is in the field for the Augusta Masters which begins on the 8th of April. He needs to stay within the top 50 for the next couple of weeks to ensure his spot in the field at the first major of the 2010 season.

It has been a tough couple of years for Choi who has struggled with his game due to equipment changes as well as what he described as his own impatience with regards to his fitness regime:

“I had a lot of excess fat stored in my body,” said Choi. “But I think we tried to do it in such a short time that I lost more than what I needed to, and that threw my body off a little bit. I lost a lot of energy. Just compared to the reduction of the weight, the specs for my clubs, they didn’t feel right. So everything was kind of thrown off-balance.”

His  3rd place finish at last year’s Northern Trust Open at Riviera was pretty much the only bright spot in a season where he struggled enough to almost fall out of the top 100 ranked players in the world. Meanwhile, his compatriot Y.E Yang took the golf world by storm, not only winning his first PGA Tour event at the Honda Classic, but backing that up with an epic win over world number 1 Tiger Woods at the US PGA Championship to become Asia’s first Major Champion.

Plenty of motivation to get his game back on track.

Choi showed some signs of a resurgence towards the end of last year as he won the Iskandar Johor Open on the Asian Tour , where his pro golf journey began. He began the 2010 season in promising fashion with top 20 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and the Mayakoba Golf Classic. He also came close to winning the Maybank Malaysian Open on the Asian Tour, losing out to 18 year old compatriot Noh Seong-yul by a shot.

Choi’s coach Steve Bann has been predicting a solid performance from KJ over the last few weeks, having seen him perform really well in practice: “KJ was just rearing to go after a practice session before the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am” said Bann. “Something just clicked while we were working on his swing, and he said “that’s it, lets go play”". “He couldn’t wait for the tournament to start”. For the record, Choi finished T21 at that event after sharing the lead at one point in the opening round.

Moving forward, KJ is just looking to continue to trust his skills and using Pure Golf Training concepts such as “The Confidence Cycle” to believe in his ability to perform under pressure, when it counts. Of course, there is no bigger test of nerves than a major championship, and Choi admits it has been in the back of his mind to continue his run of playing in every Masters tournament since 2002, with a 3rd place finish being his best (in 2004).

“When I started out this year, I didn’t really think about it that much, but obviously it was in my mind,” said Choi. “I just said to myself to take it week-by-week and just try my best. To hear that this finish puts me in 47th in the world, it’s actually better than what I thought I would be at this point. All I can say is I will try my best next week to maintain or better that position.”

Pure Golf Training would like to congratulate KJ Choi on a wonderful performance and wish him the best of luck in the coming weeks. Hope to see you at The Masters KJ!

P.S Here is a link to an audio interview of KJ after the Transitions Championship:

A big thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this content:

Sunday 7th March| K.J Choi continued his recent run of strong play with a 2nd place finish behind compatriot Noh Seung-yul at the Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The experienced South Korean lovingly called “the tank” by his peers handled the severe heat and humidity impressively to finish at 13 under par for the tournament. Choi birdied the final hole to put pressure on the 18 year old Noh coming down the par 5 18th tied for the lead. After taking an adventurous route on the 18th which included playing through the crowds after taking relief from the practice putting green, Noh hit a clutch pitch to 3 feet and sank the putt for birdie to win by one.

Choi, however, will take plenty of positives from a week which saw him continue to strike the ball extremely well, only to fall short (and only just) with the putter. When asked if he was disappointed at not winning he said:

“No I’m not disappointed at all. I played well and tried my best. My hats off to Seung-yul (Noh), he played well and had a fantastic round. I’m happy with how my game has improved and I have a lot to look forward to. The pin positions were tough but I held my game and managed to be in contention. Noh played brilliantly and I have no complaints.”

To his credit, Choi showed some great spirit by joining in the celebrations with young Noh as he closed out the win. He joined his Korean compatriots in showering the winner with water- a Korean tradition.

Choi enjoyed great support all week from the crowds at the Kuala Lumpur Golf Club, who seemed to adopt him as an honorary Malaysian for the week. After struggling with his game last year, Choi has started off 2010 in positive fashion with some encouraging results on the US PGA Tour including a T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open and T20 and T21 finishes at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am respectively.

Choi’s coach Steve Bann has been predicting a strong run of play from him in the last few weeks, having seen his game improve significantly in their practice sessions:

“K.J is starting to look scary good in practice. He has gained about a club in distance and is absolutely striping it. He just needs a little bit of tidying up here and there and we’ll be good to go. He is too good a player to be outside the top 50 in the world and I am confident he will be right back where he belongs in no time. I am very pleased with his progress and just excited to see him complete the final step of the Confidence Cycle and bring it onto the course in competition for 4 straight rounds.”

Thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this story

Along with being crowned champion at the Volvo China Open, Strange also finished runner up to Robert Allenby at the 2009 Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola, had a 12th place finish at the Australian Open, and secured a further five European Tour top 10’s.
According to Strange, “The OneAsia Tour is a great concept for the region’s best players competing on a tour that develops golf in those partnering countries,”
“As the winner last year’s inaugural Order of Merit, I am really looking forward to 2010 and participating in the OneAsia events – hopefully last year’s form continues! I look forward to opening my 2010 account at the Luxehills Chengdu Open, and seeing the international players competing in Australia at the end of the year.”

PGA of Australasia has the rest of the story: