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| September 22, 2003 | Monday | Rajab 24, 1424 |
Choi holds nerve to win on Euro debut
COLOGNE (Germany), Sept 21: Korean K. J. Choi won on his first visit to continental Europe when he claimed the German Masters title on Sunday by two strokes.
A closing five-under-par 67 for a 26-under-par 262 total, earned the U.S. PGA Tour player his first European Tour success to add to two titles he took in America last year. He finished two shots ahead of Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Choi picked up $565,000 dollars as Europe’s 16th first-time winner of the season and Asia’s third of the year on the circuit. Jimenez’s consolation was to earn the top points on offer in the European Ryder Cup campaign of 333,330.
Sweden’s Niclas Fasth, who played in the last Ryder Cup, and Briton Ian Poulter finished joint third, a further stroke back.
Choi began the final round with a one-stroke advantage but had to battle hard for his first European success.
A spectacular eagle-two on the par-four fifth hole when he ‘slam-dunked’ his ball straight into the hole with a six-iron from 168 yards, helped his cause, though.
He had holed a bunker shot for an eagle on the long 13th the previous day and again eagled the hole to move back in front, this time with a 12ft putt.
Although Fasth at one stage caught him, Choi was never headed from there and when the Swede bogeyed the short 16th, the last resistance to the Korean was over.
Leading scores after the final round (Britain unless stated):
262 K.J.Choi (South Korea) 63 68 64 67
264 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 67 62 67 68
265 Niclas Fasth (Sweden) 68 67 65 65, Ian Poulter 65 63 69 68 268 Darren Clarke 65 71 65 67, Anders Hansen (Denmark) 69 62 72 65, Carlos Rodiles (Spain) 65 65 67 71
269 Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 69 67 66 67, Mathias Gronberg (Sweden) 68 69 68 64, David Howell 66 69 69 65, Jarrod Moseley (Australia) 68 65 67 69
270 Gary Orr 65 66 70 69
271 Alex Cejka (Germany) 70 69 67 65, Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 72 65 68 66, Lee Westwood 71 67 70 63 272 Retief Goosen (South Africa) 68 67 66 71, Justin Rose 69 66 70 67, Adam Scott (Australia) 66 69 67 70 delayed second round
FARMINGTON (Pennsyvania): Robert Damron and Cameron Beckman led a parade of low scores to share a one-shot advantage after the second round of the Pennsylvania Classic on Saturday.
Both players fired six-under-par rounds of 66 to finish on 11-under-par 133 in the rain-affected tournament that lost an entire day’s play to the weather on Friday. Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik carded one of his best rounds of the season, a 66, and vaulted up the leaderboard into a tie for third with Brett Quigley and Heath Slocum on 134.
Leading scores (U.S. unless stated):
133 Robert Damron 67 66, Cameron Beckman 67 66
134 Brett Quigley 67 67, Jesper Parnevik (Sweden) 68 66, Heath Slocum 70 64 135 Tom Scherrer 71 64, Craig Barlow 67 68, Jerry Kelly 67 68, Chris DiMarco 70 65, Kenneth Staton 69 66, Scott Laycock (Australia) 67 68
136 J.L. Lewis 69 67, Glen Day 71 65, David Peoples 67 69, Mike Standly 67 69, Ben Curtis 69 67, Tim Petrovic 67 69
137 Skip Kendall 68 69, Michael Clark II 66 71, Donnie Hammond 65 72, Billy Andrade 73 64, Harrison Frazar 69 68, Tom Gillis 69 68, Stuart Appleby (Australia) 69 68, Grant Waite (New Zealand) 66 71, Jeff Maggert 69 68, Jonathan Byrd 69 68, Frank Lickliter II 70 67, Carl Paulson 68 69,Joey Sindelar 68 69—Agencies
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