You know the type — young men with fashionable golf shirts with upturned collars, flip flops, Budweisers and loud mouths. They’re standard issue at PGA Tour golf tournaments. Sunday at Congressional Country Club, four of them were stationed at the 16th hole, cheering on K.J. Choi.
But with this foursome came a twist. They weren’t yelling in English.
What is “You da man,” in Korean?
Tiger Woods might have been the toast of Washington, D.C., this week as he hosted the AT&T National. But the second most popular man Sunday was Choi. The South Korea native delighted his hard-core fans — many of whom ignored Woods and followed Choi for all 18 holes — by becoming the first champion of the AT&T National.
Being in a city with a strong South Korean population, Choi felt the love.
“The American fans were very supportive of me,” said Choi, 37. “But especially the Korean fans. They were great. I can’t even put into words how they supported me here. It’s probably the biggest Korean gallery that I’ve seen on the PGA Tour.”
Choi shot a 2-under-par 68 in the final round, to finish at 9-under and win by three strokes. With three birdies on the last seven holes, Choi pulled away from Steve Stricker, who had a one-shot lead early on the back nine, but made three bogeys on the last eight holes.
The clincher came on No. 17, where Choi put his approach shot in a bunker. But instead of seeing his two-stroke lead whittled, Choi knocked the sand shot into the cup, increasing his lead and setting the scene for a joyous march down the 18th fairway.
“All I was trying to do was save par,” said Choi, who won $1.08 million. “But I put the ball exactly where I wanted to. And I guess the speed was right, the undulation, everything was right and it just went in.”
Two holes earlier, Choi took command with a 12-foot birdie putt, making birdie on a hole that Stricker had bogeyed. Afterward, Stricker credited Choi’s bunker wizardry.
“You hole out like that when it’s your turn to win,” said Stricker, who won the Kemper Open in 1996. “That’s what K.J. did.”
It was the sixth PGA Tour victory of Choi’s career and second this year. The man nicknamed “Tank” also won the Memorial, the tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus.
“I don’t look back, just move forward like a tank,” said Choi. “It’s just how I felt when I first came over to the U.S. starting out. It was a new culture, new language, everything was new. But I believed in myself and trusted the Lord.”
