HONOLULU (AP) -The ballroom at Waialae Country Club has rarely been so raucous after the Sony Open.
The cheers for K.J. Choi drowned out the surf and wind on the other side of the glass doors when he walked onto the stage wearing three leis and a smile that lit up the night. After a few Hawaiian songs in his honor, it took 15 minutes for him to leave the stage because of members, guests and fans who wanted their picture taken with him, or at least his autograph on their ticket.
"K.J. Choi, ladies and gentleman, our Sony Open champion," the announcer boomed into a mike. "He's on his way home to Texas and won't play again until the Buick Invitational against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson."
The roar brought another smile to Choi.
He has been playing the U.S. PGA Tour since 2000, and rarely hears his name mentioned in the same sentence with the top two players in the world. But the more he keeps winning, it might be hard to leave him out of the conversation.
Choi has established himself as the best Asian player in the world, the only one in the top 25. But he is moving into more elite company now, especially after a start-to-finish victory in the Sony Open, his third U.S. PGA Tour victory in his last 12 starts.
The 37-year-old from South Korea is at No. 7 in the world, a career-high for him.
His three-shot victory at Waialae, in which he built a four-shot lead going into the final round and survived blustery conditions to hold off a late charge from Rory Sabbatini, was the seventh in his career. Choi has won at least one U.S. PGA Tour event in each of the last four years, something only Woods, Mickelson and Vijay Singh can claim at the moment.
This was the second piece of news Choi had heard on Sunday.
The first came after tapping in on the 18th for his only birdie of a tough final round, when friends and fans told him that Sunday was the 105th anniversary of Korean immigration to America, starting with 101 men, women and children aboard the ship Gaelic that sailed into Honolulu Harbor at dawn on Jan. 13, 1903.
That made his victory feel even more meaningful.
But being linked to Woods, Mickelson and Singh? That made him only determined.
"It was all through hard work," he said. "And all I can do right now is just try my best, and just try to fill this empty cup that's out there, keep on filling it up."
