"How bleak life was then," she told Nam Hwa Young, a senior editor for Golf Digest Korea. "I feel pain if I recall those moments when my son used to sleep curled up in the dark and cold corner of the dormitory."
In 1994, five years out of high school and finished with his obligatory duty in the Korean Army, Choi became a professional golfer. In 1996 he won the Korean Open. In 1999 and 2000 he qualified for the PGA Tour. In 2002 he won for the first time on tour. Even before his seventh tour victory this January, he had joined an exclusive circle of players who won in each of the three previous seasons: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Adam Scott and K.J. Choi.
Now, 37 years old, with all that as foundation . . .
He just needs to win a major.
Veteran caddie Cayce Kerr was on Choi's bag for Q school at Doral in 1999. In the last round, at the Silver Course, Kerr saw the future. "We were on the 18th, his ninth that day," Kerr says. "He was in the right rough with the water back-right in play. Like the great players I've worked with -- Hubert Green, Fuzzy Zoeller -- K.J. took his medicine. Laid up. Made bogey, not double or triple. Then had a fantastic back nine and got his card on the number."
For Andy Prodger, the future is now. Nick Faldo's caddie for two major championships, at another time Colin Montgomerie's man, the Englishman has worked for Choi the last five years. "He might already have won a major, except he became nervous and embarrassed to see he was three shots in front after 27 at the Masters," Prodger says. At Augusta in 2004, Choi shot a six-under-par 30 on Friday's front nine. "To suddenly see that he, K.J. Choi, was leading the Masters by three shots -- yes, nervous and embarrassed."
The Wando fisherman's son bogeyed the next three holes before regaining the poise that allowed him to shoot a Sunday 69 and finish in third place, beaten by the margin of those bogeys, three shots behind Mickelson.
By now, Choi's composure is so much a part of his personality that Prodger says, "If I could build a golfer from all the men I've worked with in 28 years, I'd take Faldo's tunnel vision, Monty's ball-striking and Choi's calmness. He'd be a world-beater."
Choi believes he is a better player than ever because he has made swing changes that give him greater command of every shot. And even to his surprise, he continues to use a putter with an extra-thick grip; he calls it "big and ugly," but that's OK because, as Prodger said after the Sony victory, "He putted like God."
His serenity, patience and determination are no surprises to anyone familiar with Choi's military duty along Korea's coastline. A young man in a hurry, stationed on rocky shores far from any golf course, Choi found a way to stay in touch with his dream.
He set pine cones on a stone. And hit them with the butt end of his M-16 rifle. "Sounded like explosions," he said, delighted, "and everyone became alarmed."
It's doubtful that J.W. Nicklaus ever suggested such an exercise, but maybe the first K.J. Choi book will.
He just needs to win a major.
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