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HONOLULU (TICKER) -- K.J. Choi made just one birdie on Sunday but he
kept the mistakes to a minimum and won the $5.3 million Sony Open.
Choi, who did not make a birdie until the final hole, carded a
1-over-par 71 for a three-shot victory at the first full-field event of
the PGA Tour season.
Choi started the round with a four-stroke cushion but found it tough going in the blustery conditions at Waialae Country Club.
Despite his lack of birdies, Choi had just two bogeys and finished at
14-under 266 for the first wire-to-wire victory here since Brad Faxon
did it in 2001.
Rory Sabbatini had his chances but made just enough mistakes to keep
himself from catching Choi and he finished in second at 11-under 269
after a 68.
Jerry Kelly signed for a 67 to finish third at 10-under 270.
Choi earned $954,000 for the win, his seventh career PGA Tour title. He
also has posted a win in each of the last four seasons to join Tiger
Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh with active streaks that long.
"That's a very interesting fact that I didn't know. But again, I'm not
really concerned about things like that because I just found out, but I
achieved it because I didn't think about it," Choi said. "It was all
through hard work. And all I can do right now is just try my best and
just try to fill this empty cup that's out there, keep on filling it
up. There's a lot of improvements that I need to make, and all I can
say is I'll just keep on trying my best."
And Sunday was about hard work.
Choi started the event with three rounds in the 60s, but with the winds
blowing the final round turned out to be a much sterner test. Only
eight players broke par and the final round scoring average was just
over two shots over-par.
"Obviously Waialae showed its teeth today," Sabbatini said. "It's
obviously a golf course that played fairly timid all week long, and
even though the rough was up, it kept the scoring relatively high for
this tournament. It showed its teeth today, and it kind of brought the
field back a little bit. So it really played to its true nature."
A bogey at No. 4 and eight pars on the front side was not the best
start but it did not cost Choi the lead, just a shot off of it. A
chance to get back to even-par on the round and regain his four-shot
lead passed at the par-5 ninth when he lipped out a birdie putt from
four feet.
Choi also bogeyed No. 13 but stayed out of trouble the rest of the way.
His chip from just off the back of the green for birdie at 17 lipped
out and he took a conservative approach on the par-5 finishing hole and
carded his lone birdie of the day.
"I can't remember having such a difficult round as far as I can
remember as today. It was very difficult conditions out there," said
Choi, who is now 5-for-5 with a 54-hole lead. "I told myself, try not
to lose focus.
"Honestly I would have thought I would have probably had to shoot
2-under to win, but with the conditions being so difficult out there, I
just tried to stay focused with every shot and just keep it close until
the end. I think even on the last hole, just keeping my concentration,
getting that birdie secured everything."
The field caught a break with Choi struggling and Sabbatini tried to
apply some pressure but he had too much of a deficit to overcome and
just made a few too many mistakes.
Sabbatini made six birdies but his climb up the leaderboard was
derailed by a pair of bogeys and a double-bogey at the par-4 eighth.
"When you're six shots behind you've got to go low and post a number up
there," Sabbatini said. "There were two things that needed to happen
today for someone else other than K.J. to win, and that was for K.J. to
lose a few shots back to the field and for someone to go low. He kind
of did his part and kind of brought himself back towards us a little
bit, but the ones of us that were chasing unfortunately failed to do
our jobs and go low enough to maybe change the outcome."
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