Favorable Start by Choi Kyung-ju

“It was a good choice to change the caddy.”

Choi Kyung-ju (age 33, Superior & Tailor Made) began a favorable start with his new caddy on 21st February, first round of Nissan Open (Total prize $4.5 mil.) American PGA Tour held in Riviera Country Club near LA, California. Ever since his second place winning in the season`s opening game-Mercedes Open, Choi was suffering from a slump. But he scored 2 birdies and 1 boogie with 1 under par. The sunset ended the game with fifteen players unfinished. Choi ranked joint-12th.

After dismissing his exclusive caddy, Steve Underwood in the Sony Open, Choi was disqualified twice in the cutoffs. Today Choi showed stable play by partnership with his new exclusive caddy, Pol Huscoe. Choi showed 67% hitting rate in the Green and managed to reduce his putting score to 28.

“The caddy helped me greatly in reading the putting line and gave me accurate advices which made me concentrate confidently in the game,” says Choi.

Choi scored a boogie in the 13th hole (par 4) and birdies in the 16th (par 3) and 2nd hole (par 4) accordingly. He managed to finish the rest of the holes by par.

Last week, Tiger Woods (USA) in his return game-Buick Invitational, increased his putting score to 34 and scored 3 birdies, 4 boogies and 1 over par. He managed to rank only joint-24th. Woods was frustrated and lost his concentration by constant ringing of mobile phones from the gallery. In the 17th hole, he even shouted, “Turn off the phone.”

In the PGA Tour, 156th ranked Fred Punk (USA) with average driver distance of 276 yards managed to lead single by one putting-hole out in eleven holes. He suppressed his putting to 23 and leads the way with 6 under par.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com