Choi Kyung-ju, “I Feel Regret to Miss a Come-from-behind Victory”

“It is inconvenient because I had a good condition. There were some missed shots, but there also was no luck.”

Although the `Tank` Choi Gyong-joo (Superior, Taylormade) failed to win a come-from-behind victory, he escaped from the recent slump by entering into the second `top 5` of the season.

It was the final 4th round of the US PGA Tour Nissan Open (4.5 million dollars in total prize money) held at the Riviera Country Club (par 71) near Los Angeles, California on the 24th.

Choi Kyung-ju, who hit 1 over-par 72 shots (2 birdies, 3 bogies), finished the game as a tie for the fifth place (6 under-par, 278 shots) with the `Emperor of Golf` Tiger Woods, who recorded the daily best of 6 under-par 65 shots.

The inconvenience was even bigger because he had a chance of winning if the rising curve of the 3rd round (4 under-par, 67 shots) was continued.

It was because the sole leader Charles Howell III (USA) and Nick Price (Zimbabwe), who matched up at the `champion group,` did not play well with 2 over-par and 1 over-par each.

It was out of the competition because he consecutively missed approach shots and the number of puttings, which was 27 in average until the 3rd round, was increased to 32.

He was sorry about his heart-breaking mistake after the game by saying, “Since the green was hard, I hit short worry that it would go over, but some were too short.”

The biggest earning of Choi Kyung-ju in this championship was the confidence for the newly hired exclusive caddy Paul Husko(USA). It makes the predictions for the 4 majors of this season including the Masters` in April bright.

In the meantime the `lefty` Mike Wier (Canada) caught up with Howell III, who were ahead as many as 7 shots, and made a tie (9 under-par, 275 shots), and concluded a tingling come-from-behind victory by dropping a birdie at the second hole of the extra holes.

Wier, who won 810,000 dollars of prize money, marked 2,022,000 dollars of prize money for the season by winning the second win following the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and went up to the money ranking leader leaving Ernie Els (1,810,000 dollars, South Africa) behind.

Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com