KJ Choi secured his first PGA TOUR Champions title after beating Bernhard Langer and Alex Cejka at the 2021 PURE Insurance Championship in Pebble Beach, California.
RELATED: PGA TOUR Champions Leaderboard
KJ Choi, 67-68-68 – 203 (-13)
- Choi started the round with a two-stroke lead, carding six birdies to place a 31 in front before a bogey at par-5 # 14 – his first in 39 holes – ended with a 4 under 68.
- His first win at PGA TOUR Champions comes in his 15th start, a week after finishing second behind Darren Clarke in a two-hole playoff at Sanford International (Sioux Falls, South Dakota).
- With the win, Choi becomes the first PGA TOUR Champions winner from South Korea.
- After Bernhard Langer (Germany), Paul Broadhurst (England) and Esteban Toledo (Mexico), Choi is the fourth international player to win the PURE Insurance Championship in its 18-year history.
- It was Choi’s first win in the United States in 211 starts since the 2011 PLAYERS Championship, breaking a winless streak of 3,787 days (10 years, 4 months, 11 days).
- Choi, who turned 51 on May 19, will become the 11th rookie to win PGA TOUR Champions in the 2020/21 season (last rookie to win: Cameron Beckmann).
- There were now 13 first-time winners of the PGA TOUR Champions in the 2020/21 season.
Choi won eight times on the PGA TOUR and ten international titles, most recently at the 2012 CJ Invitational hosted by KJ Choi on the Asian Tour. - Choi now has six top 10 finishes during the 2020-21 wraparound season and has moved up from 31st to 21st place in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.
Bernhard Langer, 71-66-68 – 205 (-11)
- Langer went back to the final lap two on Sunday, shooting 4 under 68 to finish two shots behind KJ Choi.
- It was the fourth runner-up for the winner of the PURE Insurance Championship 2017 in the 2020/21 season.
- He has one win (2020 Cologuard Classic) and 21 top 10s in 34 starts in the 2020-21 season.
- Langer turned 64 on August 27 and is a 41-time winner of the PGA TOUR Champions (second most popular of all time).
- With his $ 176,000 check for second place, the World Golf Hall of Fame member regained the top spot in the Charles Schwab Cup standings for week 17 of the season.
- This is Langer’s 39th runner-up ever at PGA TOUR Champions. He finished first or second 80 times in 289 starts (27.7%)
- With his 68 today, Langer extended his current series of rounds from par or better to 24 (current best on the tour).
Alex Cejka, 66-71-68 – 205 (-11)
- Cejka made four of his first five holes with a birdie and scored a 4 under 68 on the final lap.
- Led field in greens this week in regulation, reaching 46 out of 54 (85.2%).
- With 15 starts this season, Cejka has two wins (2021 Regions Tradition and 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship), two runner-ups and six top 10 finishes.
- Cejka moves up four places to 12th place in the Charles Schwab Cup ($ 1,639,257).
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- Scott Dunlap carded six consecutive birdies straight out of gate (# 1-6), followed by another birdie on # 10 and a bogey on # 17 en route to a 6-under 66 on Sunday, giving him 21 points brought in to a fourth place.
- His streak of six birdies ties in with this year’s record set by Glen Day at the Chubb Classic 2021 (Rd. 1, No. 5-10).
- On his PGA TOUR Champions debut, first-round co-leader Stuart Appleby played rounds 66-77-72 (T34).
- New Zealander Steven Alker increased his top 10 positions in a row to five with his T5 finish start in his fifth career start of the PGA TOUR Champions. With the top 10 placement, Alker secured a place for the next event, the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS, in Jacksonville, Florida (October 4-10).