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Ballantines Championship: Home favourite Choi leads the way

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Bill Elliott on a very impressive golfer from a golf mad country

An historic first for the European Tour this week as the circuit ambles for the first time into Korea and on to an island called Jeju. Now I like Korea. I spent several weeks there in 1988 covering the Olympic Games. I found the place itself fascinating, the people extraordinarily polite and the food interesting.

Certainly a lot of pleasant memories linger on. Unfortunately the other thing that lingered for too long was the all pervading stink of kimchi. Pronounced kimshee, this is the national dish, a sort of stew thing made from cabbage and some other stuff. The Koreans loved it but few of us westerners took to it (think of boiling up a bunch of recently used socks) so that we pronounced it AAAARGH!

Anyway, the focus this weekend will be on Korea and in particular in that grand country's favourite golfer, KJ Choi (trading at [6.6]). Smiley KJ is, to be blunt, one hell of a golfer. Just 5ft 8ins tall but weighing in at close to 13stones, Choi has won seven titles on the US circuit and lifted his latest in Hawaii in January. He is affable, straightforward and, it seems to me, utterly without nerve. I mean this of course in a good way.

Strong enough to squat 350lbs weights as a powerlifter when he was 16 he failed to develop enough upper body strength to become world class so this son of a rice farmer turned to golf instead while his bewildered dad looked on from the sidelines. Dad is still bewildered but now it is by the huge amounts of money that KJ makes and that he has used to transform his family's life.

When Ballantine's set up this tournament they knew they needed some big names and Choi's was the biggest, top of their list, and the fact that he is out there now to mix it with the likes of Padraig Harrington and Chris DiMarco means there really is justification for some serious interest in this event.

Says Harrington: "The best way to describe KJ is that he is relentless. He just keeps doing his thing, is very self confident and goes about his business in his way. It is an intimidating factor (for the rest of us) when a player is so comfortable with who he is and KJ is happy just trying to be KJ Choi."

To be fair, this last bit is confusing. I mean, who else could KJ Choi be? Tiger Woods, Brad Pitt, that bloke who plays the drums in the Arctic Monkeys? Still, I think I know what Padraig is trying to edge his way towards expressing. Choi is a special player because he believes he is special. This is frequently not the case with pro golfers who can be the most jittery of competitors, consumed with self-doubt unless of course they are pontificating at the bar and trying to impress the blonde at the corner table.

Whatever, the Pinx Club on Jeju Island is about to see just how determined this tough, little guy can be when he is properly focused. He arrives back in Korea as a genuine superstar, a man who is leading his people forward in the world of golf. He says he is anxious to put on a good show, that while he has nothing to prove he is set to try to prove it anyway. I, for one, would not bet against him. And, naturally, I'd also avoid the kimchi.