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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 10, 2008

K.J. Choi

HONOLULU, HAWAII

STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome our first round leader K.J. Choi to the interview room here at the Sony Open in Hawai'i after a great opening round 64 out there. Nice birdie at the last. Talk to us a little bit about your round.
K.J. CHOI: This is my seventh time here at the Sony Open. Today I think what's meaningful is that I had a bogey-free round. My score reflected it.
Yesterday I felt like my shots were coming back. I was getting back into my rhythm. I feel like today, this year, I'm adjusting to the course very well.
Last week I had a bit of trouble with the putting. It really didn't go the way that I wanted to. But this week I felt like my putting was coming back, and I just feel very good today.

Q. Do you expect to do well here given your history? You seem to always play well.
K.J. CHOI: It's too early to say, but all I can say is I'm going to try my best until the end of the week. But like I said before, I feel good this week. It's a good vibe that I'm feeling, and with all the fans, the local fans supporting me, I feel a lot of support there. It's treating me well.

Q. Is there another tournament on TOUR that's got that much Korean influence?
K.J. CHOI: Actually I feel like the support that I get from the local gallery, whether it's Korean or Asian, it's really changed the last year because ever since I won the Memorial and AT & T, I felt like the mind or the culture of the gallery, the way they look at me, it's all changed for the better. I think that's contributing a lot to the development of golf and the popularity of golf on a general level.

Q. Just as a follow-up, did that not happen after say New Orleans or Tampa or other places, or was it the prestige of Memorial?
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely changed a lot. I noticed that back when I won in 2002, those tournaments, it was more a small group of Korean hard-core K.J. fans, whereas now since this last year, obviously because the stature of The Memorial Tournament but more because of my consistency, the way the TOUR is growing, I think I'm getting a lot more support from a wider spectrum of fans, not just Koreans but Asians, Americans. It's just gotten a lot bigger support-wise.

Q. The years that you came so close to winning here, what did you learn in those situations about what you need to do to close?
K.J. CHOI: I don't think it's really more the technical things that I need to do more; I felt like I learned that I had to enjoy the week more. Instead of trying to worry about whether I'm going to win this week, whether I'm going to close it out this week, I learned that just being yourself, just enjoying the week, enjoying the tournament, enjoying the relationship you have with the fans, the volunteers and things like that. When you have a good week, it makes you feel comfortable, and when you're keeping your body in the right physical shape and you feel well-rested, then you're able to close it out when you're really in contention. You're able to do that because you feel at peace with yourself.

Q. It's been a while probably since you've been asked this question, but for years when you first came out, people knew you as the guy who used to be the power lifter. What were those days like? Were you any good?
K.J. CHOI: You know, those two years when I was a power lifter, I'm very thankful because I feel like it set the foundation for me athletically. It provided me with the basic workout that I need. Those two years I trained very hard. It was more, you were really fighting with -- you weren't competing with other athletes, you were just -- it was a fight process with the equipment, the weights.
Weight lifters, they have to be very flexible, not only powerful but you have to be very flexible, so they made me do a lot of training based on flexibility, running, tumbling, things like that, and sometimes I would have to climb -- go up the mountain with a 25-kilo weight on my shoulders, things like that. It really provided me with the power and the flexibility that I need to be a professional golfer.

Q. So whenever Andy complains about how much the bag weighs, you don't want to hear it?
K.J. CHOI: All the time he's racing.

Q. What's the most you ever lifted?
K.J. CHOI: Squatted just one time 150 kilos. I was 13 years old, and my weight was 43 kilograms. I don't know pounds.

Q. 13 years old?
K.J. CHOI: Yeah, squat. Almost 100 pounds my weight, and I squatted 150 kilos.

Q. How much do you weigh now?
K.J. CHOI: Now, 195 pounds.

Q. In kilos?
K.J. CHOI: 87 kilos, 88 kilos. Three children, getting big in the body.

Q. Which mountain did you go up?
K.J. CHOI: In the background of my school, 50 yards high mountain.
MICHAEL YIM: In his hometown of Wando.

Q. Could you bench press your own weight?
K.J. CHOI: I don't know. I don't like bench press because my shoulder is a little weak on my body. That's why for power lifter no good. My coach said, K.J., your body no good, your arm long, weak in the shoulder. In the knees you are strong, but shoulders are very important in power lifter and stretch is very important. Every time back drop because front of shoulders are very weaker. Doesn't matter for golf, very flexible and speeding and timing. It's different than power lifting.

Q. How old were you when you weighed 43 kilos?
K.J. CHOI: 13, 14 years.
STEWART MOORE: K.J., thank you.

End of FastScripts

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