Page 15 - Golf Champion - April 2022

KJ Choi finishes in 2nd as Yong-

eun Yang tied for 15th place

Retief Goosen hits last birdie at the Hoag Classic
ewport Beach, CA — In the final round of
Nthe Hoag Classic, Goosen holed out for an
eagle from a short par 4, greenside bunker on the
1st hole, then birdied on the next two holes and
cruised to an 8-under 63 total of 15-under. He
finished with 198 strokes. Afterwards, he won by 4
strokes with KJ Choi, who finished in second place.

A two-time U.S. Open champion and winner of
the 2019 SENIOR Players, Goosen won the PGA
Tour Championship for the second time after an
offseason shoulder surgery.

Goosen drove the first 4 under par with birdie on
the par 4 and 6 holes, birdie on the par 3 and 10, par
4 on the 11th bogey, par 4 on the 11th hole, rebound
on the 12th, par 5 and 15 holes, and finished off
K. J. Choi
with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.

KJ Choi finished in second and Yong-Eun Yang tied
Y. E. Yang
for 15th.

Lee Janzen (69) and Stephen Ames (67) tied for
third at 9-under. Doug Barron and Tim Petrovic
each shot 67 for a 7-under.

Ernie Els, who won the last tournament in 2020,
finished sixth with a 73, 6-under.

KJ Choi and Yong-Eun Yang on the PGA Champions
Tour

Born on June 14, 1968, in Hwaheung-ri, Wando-
eup, Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, KJ Choi was active
as a golf player in high school. Early on, he played
on the Asian stage, winning his first win at the 1996
Korea Open and twice on the Japan Golf Tour in
1999. In 1999, he tied for 35th on the US PGA Tour
qualification qualification and became the first
Korean to receive a PGA Tour seed.
In the rookie season in 2000, he was ranked 134th
in the prize money ranking and had to go back to Q
school, but since 2001, he has been active on tour
with steady results.

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