Rising to the Occasion

At Woods's High-Profile Tournament, It's the Low-Key Choi Who Grabs the Spotlight

There would be no stirring Sunday charge to the top for Tiger Woods at his inaugural AT&T National golf tournament, though he did have a birdie-birdie finish and a firm grip on the championship trophy for at least a few seconds late on a sweltering afternoon yesterday at Congressional Country Club.

But on a day of searing sun that seemed to take a toll on many of the top contenders on the back nine, Woods eventually passed along a silver replica of the U.S. Capitol to K.J. Choi of South Korea. Choi shot 68 in the final round and 9-under-par 271, good for a three-shot victory over 1996 Kemper Open champion Steve Stricker (70 -- 274).

"Absolutely unbelievable," said Choi, who in June accepted a trophy from his longtime idol after winning Jack Nicklaus's Memorial tournament. "It's a fantastic memory to win Tiger's tournament. I'm very proud."

Another massive crowd of more than 37,000 turned up in the Maryland suburbs, despite the mid-90s heat, with many expecting to see 36-hole leader Stuart Appleby and Choi, his final group playing partner, duel for the title. Instead, Stricker pushed toward the top with a run of four birdies in a seven-hole stretch of the front nine to take a one-shot lead when he made the turn.

Appleby, who started the day with a two-shot advantage, self-destructed almost immediately with a double bogey on his second hole. He shot 5-over 40 on his front side and never was a factor, making one final bogey at the 18th to fall into a three-way tie for third place with Pat Perez (67) and Jim Furyk (69) at 3-under 277. After signing for a 76, Appleby did not speak with reporters.

Stricker began to slow on the back nine, with bogeys at the 14th and 15th holes, and Choi took full advantage. He opened a two-shot margin over Stricker with a 12-foot birdie putt at the 439-yard 15th hole. He all but clinched the victory when he holed a 30-foot shot from a greenside bunker at the 437-yard 17th hole for a three-shot lead with one to play, much to the delight of hundreds of Korean Americans who followed him all day.

"All this week, I had a good feel for my bunker shots," Choi said through an interpreter afterward. "I wasn't trying to put it in the hole. All I was trying to do was save par. I put the ball exactly where I wanted to. I guess the speed was right, the undulation, and it just went in. It's something I didn't even expect. It surprised me."

Choi pumped his fist -- Tiger Woods-style -- when the ball plopped into the cup. But the 37-year-old native of Wando, South Korea, who learned to play golf by watching Nicklaus's videos and reading his instructional books, insisted he hadn't learned the celebratory pump from Woods.

"It's just a gesture that came out naturally," he said, "given the circumstances, the atmosphere, all the fans being there . . . I'm just shocked at myself being able to win Jack and Tiger's tournament. I can't express what this means to me. This tournament is just too big for me to absorb right now. I can say this week's trophy is a lot heavier than Jack's."

While Choi took home a champion's check of $1.08 million from the $6 million purse, it was also a win-win for Woods and his foundation, the beneficiary of the proceeds, and Congressional, which is contracted to host the event again in 2008. The tournament went on the tour schedule only four months ago, but still attracted more than 139,000 fans over the last six days, including more than 75,000 on the weekend.

"Walking around this golf course this entire week, I think this tournament has been embraced by the people here in the D.C. area," said Woods, who shot a 70 to tie for sixth place with Robert Allenby (68 -- 278). Woods donated his earnings of $208,500 to his foundation. "This tournament in general has been a bigger success than any one of us could have imagined. The turnout has been incredible."

Stricker said he also was impressed with the crowds and the "mini-major" feel of the entire week. He hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2001 and last year was voted the tour's comeback player of the year after three straight seasons when he failed to make the top 125 in earnings, often relying on sponsor's exemptions to get into tournament fields.

"It's up to me to make the putts, make the birdies, or finish it off coming down the stretch and I just haven't done that," Stricker said of his final round. "It was hard. I don't know if [the heat] had much to do with that as anything, but I think the course just got a bit difficult and the greens got a little bumpy today. I think that may have made it harder, and a course like this wears on you after a while. This is the final day, there are a little more nerves, a little bit more on the line. It just seems to get people on the fourth day."

Choi, the co-leader after the first and second rounds, moved ahead for the first time at the 427-yard No. 4 when Appleby failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker, missing a 12-foot putt for par. Choi hit a sky-high wedge shot that hit above the hole and spun back to within three feet. He made the putt for a two-shot swing, and when Appleby bogeyed his next two holes, he was out of the picture a third of the way into the round.

Choi kept plowing straight ahead, with another eight-foot birdie putt at the 354-yard No. 8. He bogeyed two of his first four holes on the back nine, but everyone else kept sliding as well, and those birdies at the 15th and 17th finally sealed the victory for a player known as the tour's "Tank" ever since television analyst Ian Baker-Finch gave him that nickname on a telecast four years ago.

"I like it," Choi said. "The meaning that's on it is similar to how I've lived my life: Don't look back, just move forward, just like a tank."

And just like the champion of the inaugural AT&T National.

"This definitely was an exciting one for me," he said. "The Korean fans, they were great, probably the biggest Korean gallery I've seen on the PGA Tour. Seeing this diverse gallery and the fans out there, it's not just a win for me. It's a win for everybody."