Choi earns biggest win of career

K.J. Choi figured the best way to learn to play golf was to study books by Jack Nicklaus and spend hours watching video of golf’s greatest champion. It was only fitting Choi celebrate the biggest victory of his career at the Memorial on Sunday with a handshake from Nicklaus that was as meaningful as the trophy.

Choi ran off four straight birdies on the front nine to take the lead, then finished with three clutch par saves from the bunkers and gallery to close with a seven-under-par 65, giving him a one-shot victory over Ryan Moore in Dublin, Ohio.

Rain that pounded Muirfield Village in the morning set up a shootout among a half-dozen players, all of them with a good chance to win until they either ran out of time, ran out of birdies or took themselves out of the tournament with untimely blunders.

Choi could have been on that list. After a two-putt birdie on the 15th to reach 17 under, he saved par from the bunker on the 16th with a seven-foot putt, chipped out of the gallery to 15 feet and made that for par on the 17th, then blasted out of the sand on the final hole to five feet and made that one.

Nicklaus, the tournament founder, stood behind the 18th green and waited with open arms when Choi finished at 17-under 271.

“I just feel very honored and very happy to be living in the same time as Jack is living, and to win his tournament is so meaningful to me,” Choi said after his fifth career victory earned him $1.08 million. “I can only think that this was meant to be.”

Moore ran off five straight birdies until he had to settle for par on the 18th for a 66.

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Nicole Castrale chased down the world’s No. 1 player for her first LPGA Tour victory, beating Lorena Ochoa with a par on the first hole of a playoff at the Ginn Tribute in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Castrale, who played at USC, closed with a one-under 71 to match Ochoa (74) at nine-under 279 on the RiverTowne Country Club course.

Ochoa, 0 for 4 in playoffs, was up by six shots Saturday and was still ahead by two shots with three holes to play Sunday. However, bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes dropped the Mexican star into a tie and a wayward tee shot into a marsh on the playoff hole, the 18th, cost her the title.

Castrale, who watched Ochoa’s bad drive, kept it simple and straight on the extra hole. She two-putted from 25 feet for par, then observed as Ochoa’s 18-foot try to extend the playoff slid left.

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Loren Roberts won the Boeing Championship for his first Champions Tour victory of the year, closing with a six-under 65 for a three-stroke victory over Argentina’s Eduardo Romero in Destin, Fla.

Roberts finished with a 16-under 197 total on the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort’s Raven Golf Club. He earned $247,500 for his sixth victory in three seasons on the 50-and-over tour. Romero finished with a 69.

Bob Gilder (65) and Tom Purtzer (71) tied for third at 12 under.