Na Yeon Choi Becomes Sixth Rolex First-Time Winner Of 2009
Posted by Vanessa Puzio and filed under Rolex Culture, Rolex Events, Rolex Pop Culture, Rolex Sports |
Nothing can possible match the feeling that one enjoys after that first win, which is always the sweetest and that feeling can reach unimaginable levels of happiness when a name as prestigious as Rolex is attached to it in honoring the winner. Na Yeon Chio waited for her time to come and when it eventually came she must have finally felt as elated as anyone perhaps ever can. Her moment of success came last Sunday when she put her best foot forward to emerge victorious at the Samsung World Championship to win her first golf tournament and in the process became the sixth proud winner of Rolex First-Time Winner in the year 2009.
Samsung World Championship is one the very popular tournaments on the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) calendar. It has been around since 1980 when the tournament was held for the first time and brings with itself prize money of $1,000,000. The prestigious tournament had started off as a place where only top 12 women golfers were invited initially with the number being increased to 16 in 1996. In the year 1999 the championship was expanded further to include 20 best women golfers from around the world.
The Samsung World Championship 2009 was held at the picturesque Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Courses near to San Diego and is a favorite hunting ground for the best golfers. This year’s championship was held at the South Course and among the top 20 woman golfers 17 participated to try and win the tournament. The strong field of golfers included Paula Creamer the 2008 winner and defending champion, Sophie Gustafson who is the money leader in Ladies European Tour, Lorena Ochoa who won the 2008 Vare Trophy and Jiyai Shin who is leading the 2009 LPGA Official Money List.
The way things turned out were quite unexpected especially one thing that was least likely was that in the strongest field of woman golfers one who would win would be a first time winner. This year’s tournament was also generating a lot of news because of the fact that it was only the second time that an LPGA tournament was being held at the popular Torrey Pines. The last and first time when this happened was 1983, so winning at the Torrey Pines was going to be one of those rare moments of LPGA history.
After toiling hard for many days Na Yeon Chio was the one who could hold on to her own and grab the top spot among the galaxy of players. The South Korean player didn’t make the best of the starts at the Torrey Pines but had a good second round and an unbelievable third round to finally round of with a not so good last round and emerge as the eventual winner. Her four-day total in the end was 16-under-par 272 broken as 71-67-63-71. This was an historic day for the LPGA as well as Na Yeon Chio who won her first LPGA tournament and won it in style. For Na Yeon Choi another major achievement of the day included the fact that her first victory also won her the honor of becoming the sixth Rolex First-Time Winner of the year.
Tags: Ai Miyazato, LPGA, Na Yeon Choi, Rolex First-Time Winner Of 2009, Samsung World Championship, Torrey Pines
