Meltdown Avoided As Choi Wins Samsung at Torrey Pines

by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 20, 2009 9:43 PM EDT Comment 6 comments

Na Yeon Choi appeared on her way to a rout at the Samsung World Championship at Torrey Pines. Thanks to a third round of 63, Choi entered Sunday with a two shot advantage over the other 19 players in the field.

During the round, Choi held a lead as large as seven shots. Playing the first six holes in four under par on a tough scoring day at Torrey, Choi was on cruise control. Perhaps she became too relaxed. Choi made bogeys on nine, ten, and eleven. Ai Miyazato - the biggest challenger to Choi - began her surge when Choi was reaching her lowest point. Three birdies in six holes gave her a shot at the title.

In the end, though, Choi played well enough to finish off the tournament and pick up the victory. It is her first on the LPGA Tour.

The highest finishing American in the very limited field of twenty was Paula Creamer, who finished a full seven shots off of the winning score.

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Were you as surprised as I was when Miyazato went for the green in 2 at 18 ? I can understand the desire to put the foot down on Choi’s throat and force an impossible shot – but the smart play was to lay up, wedge on, and force a birdie just to tie.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 20, 2009 9:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

too calm?

Quite the opposite—she looked quite flustered. Yup, went over to a friend’s house to catch the coverage:

http://mlyhlss.blogspot.com/2009/09/samsung-world-championship-sunday-na.html

I wonder if Ai-sama was thinking of Evian, when she put it in the bunker in 2 on 18 and got up-and-down for the birdie, which turned out to be the difference between her getting in the playoff with Gustafson and settling for 2nd. She’d certainly hit her 5-wood enough this week to have a lot of confidence in it, and had been sticking approach shot after approach shot down the home stretch with long clubs.

But, yeah, I was still surprised.

by The Constructivist on Sep 20, 2009 11:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

the line of the day...

…How about Dan Hicks talking about Choi while she was under a tree at 11 ? He was talking about her working with her fairly new caddy (4 weeks) and how she handled the pressure of tournaments…“I am going to talk more with my caddy…the more I talk…the happier I am.” (come on – anybody shocked by that ?) :-D

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 21, 2009 9:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs