Choi battles back from the brink to lead

In 2009, American Jay Choi was on the brink of quitting professional golf after finding little success competing in the mini golf tours in the US.

But he discovered Japan Golf Tour, signed up for the Q-School and subsequently earned his card for the 2010 season. And the rest, they say, is history.

Fast forward to the present, Choi, now 38, is already a JGTO veteran and finding himself in early contention to win one of the Tour’s most lucrative prizes — the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup.

Choi produced one of his best performances in recent times by firing a flawless six-under-par 65 at the Shishido Hills Country Club to lead the Tour’s ¥150,000,000 flagship event by one shot.

Kensei Hirata sits in second place, following a 66, one ahead of Taichi Kamura, who signed for a 67 and shares third place with compatriot Yusuke Sakamoto and Eun-Shin Park from South Korea.

Choi got off to a flying start with five birdies on the front nine, including making four straight gains starting from the third, before securing another on 16 to finish as the round leader for the first time in 10 years.

The last time he found himself at the summit of the leaderboard was when he was tied for the lead at the 2012 Japan Open. He eventually finished tied-38th in that tournament.

“I just played it shot by shot. It just happened that a few putts went in. I still missed a few,” he said.

“My ball-striking was solid. I think I only missed three greens today. It was a game of well-managed golf,” said Choi, whose best finish at the Japan Golf Tour championship was a tied-fourth result at the 2011 edition.

Despite opening himself up to the prospects of walking with a ¥30,000,000 jackpot, a five-year JGTO exemption, a cool BMW IX XDrive50, as well as a ticket to the DP World Tour’s BMW International in Germany and ZOZO Championship, Choi was as cool as a cucumber.

“I’m excited regardless of how I finish. I love golf. The way I finish it could also mean how the others finish. It’s not just me who’s doing it. It doesn’t matter,” said Jay, whose Totoumi Hamamatsu Open triumph in 2012 remained his sole victory to date.

Playing in the Tour Championship this week has reminded him how he has come a long way since he made his way to Japan to revive his career 13 years ago.

“I started golf when I was nine in Korea, and I fell in love with the game. I love how American junior golf programme was so much more available than in Korea 30 years ago, so decided to move to the US and started to play golf there and eventually turned pro,” he recounted.

“As soon as you turned pro, you find wherever you could play. I had a couple of times thinking about quitting here and there.

“But I hung around and found Japan. I just fell in love with Japan Tour and decided not to go anywhere else ever since.”

Meanwhile, crowd favourite Ryo Ishikawa signed for a 71 to take a share of 29th place, six shots back of Choi. The opening day of the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup also welcomed an encouraging crowd attendance of 1,223 fans.