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Choi survives Players Championship playoff
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
K.J. Choi reacts to winning The Players Championship golf tournament in a playoff against David Toms Sunday, May 15, 2011, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Associated Press
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.
In a playoff for the first time on the PGA Tour, K.J. Choi conquered an island green and more pressure than he can remember Sunday to win The Players Championship.
He won’t forget the way it ended — and neither will David Toms.
Toms went from narrowly missing an 18-foot birdie putt for the win on the 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass to missing a 3 1/2-foot comeback putt for par, handing Choi the biggest win of his career.
On a hole that is designed to provide great theater, the finish fell a little flat.
Moments earlier, Toms hit his best shot of the week from a divot in the 18th fairway and made an 18-foot birdie putt — only the fourth birdie on that hole in the final round — that got him into a playoff.
Then came the sudden-death playoff at one of the most infamous par 3s in the world. Toms looked to have the advantage when his shot settled 18 feet away and Choi was on the other side of the green.
But the South Korean hit a beautiful lag to just inside 3 feet that he ultimately tapped in for his eighth career PGA Tour win, and his first in three years. He became the fourth consecutive international player to win the PGA Tour’s premier tournament.
Toms said his short putt was uphill and into the Bermuda grain, and he knew it had to be hit solidly.
“I kind of hit it on the toe and didn’t get it rolling, and when I looked up it was left,” he said. “It was just a bad putt. No excuses, no spike marks, no ball marks, no nothing. Maybe a lot of pressure. But other than that, there was no excuse.”
Choi closed with a 2-under 70, making a par putt from just inside 5 feet that set up the playoff.
Toms also finished with with a 70, and that short putt he missed on the 17th green might not be the only shot that haunts him. Leading by one, he went for the green on the par-5 16th and hit into the water, leading to a bogey.
This from a guy who was famous 10 years ago for laying up on the par-4 18th at Altanta Athletic Club to win his lone major at the PGA Championship.
Even so, he showed some grit at the end with a birdie on the final hole at Sawgrass, which soon was forgotten.
“I’m disappointed,” Toms said. “But the way I played 18 shows that I still can do it when I need to. I’ve got to work on my putting a little bit. I could have put some distance between myself and my competitors.”