A month ago, K.J. Choi relied on a mix of solid ball striking combined with impressive short game saves to collect his first victory of the season at Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament. With two shots to make up on Stuart Appleby, K.J. Choi relied on the same play that won at the Memorial to capture his second win of the season at the AT&T National.

 When the final round began, much of the news focused not on the golfers, but on a hairline crack Stuart Appleby found on his driver during the third round. Replacements made to his exact specifications were shipped to him overnight, but it was clear Appleby was very uncomfortable. Four bogies and a double in his first seven holes effectively eliminated his chances to win the championship and left the door open for K.J. Choi and Steve Stricker to duel it out for the title.

On the front nine, Choi was barely able to keep pace with Steve Stricker, who was playing one group ahead. When Choi bogied 10 and 11 perspectively, it appeared as though Stricker could easily make a run as Choi was fading. However, Choi began to catch fire. After hitting an iron shot to the center of the 12th green, Choi sunk a long birdie putt, and then added another birdie from 12 feet on 15 to give himself a two shot lead. In the fairway on the 17th, Choi appeared to be cruising in, when his approach shot found the deep right hand bunker with a pin tucked on the right side. Choi settled himself in the bunker and watched the ball land a pace onto the green and run right into the hole, turning a potential double bogie into a birdie. Choi said, "I had a good feel for my bunker shots. I wasn’t trying to put it in the hole. All I was trying to do was save par. But I dropped the ball, I put the ball exactly where I wanted to. And I guess the speed was right, the undulation, the speed, everything was right and it just went in. It was something that I didn’t even expect. It surprised me." After finding another fairway on 18 and two putting for his par, Choi found himself with his 9th career victory on the PGA Tour.

In an odd twist of fate, much of K.J. Choi’s recent success would likely have been impossible without Stuart Appleby – or more precisely his coach Steven Bann. Bann has been working with K.J. Choi, helping with his full swing, and more importantly refining Choi’s short game technique. According to Stuart Appleby, "K.J. had a real alignment issue and sort of used to putt and twisted his head and sort of got him squared up and got him going and that changed his putting grammatically; a couple of changes with his swing and K.J. is very comfortable." The results of the hard work were very evident this Sunday.

With this win, Choi has notched two victories in the same year at elite tournaments with very strong fields. He currently ranks fourth on the money list and in FedEx Cup Points. In the past two years he has been making some major strides in his game, and clearly many have him earmarked as the next player likely to win a major, "Definitely winning a major is my goal. That’s my life goal, my life dream is to become the first Asian to ever have won a major. And that’s something that I’m going to strive very hard and work at it," said Choi.