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Chella Choi was a member of the 2006 Korean
National Second Team; that year, she also won the Korea Junior
Golf Association Championship.
In 2007, she played at a KLPGA event and finished
14th while still an amateur. At the end of that year, she
turned pro and came to America, where she joined the Futures
Tour. In 2008, she played 17 events on tour, making four top
tens including a second place finish. She finished the year
ranked 17th on tour in money.
That December, she went to LPGA Qualifying
School. By the end of the week, she was one of four players
left playing for the final two full membership cards. They
played three holes to determine their fate. Choi birdied the
first, and after three holes, had the lead; one of the two
cards was hers! Thus, she became a rookie on tour in 2009.
In 2009, Choi worked hard to gain full status,
but in the end just fell short, finishing 86th on the year
end money list. Her best finish was a 20th. So she will have
the same status in 2010 she had in 2009.
Choi's record improved in 2010. She made twice
as much money, finished higher on the money list, and earned
category 1 status for 2011. She was still looking for her
first top ten finish, however.
2011 was by far the best season of Chella's
career to date. She scored her first two top tens, had a fabulous
US Women's Open where she nearly made another top ten, and
made over $300,000 on the season to finish 35th on the money
list. She also had a scoring average below par for the first
time ever. This performance positioned her as one of the most
promising of the young Koreans on tour.
In 2012, Chella took another huge leap forward
in her career, contending multiple times for titles and finishing
in the top 20 on the money list (20th) for the first time
in her career. She still has not won, but she lost in a playoff
at the Manulife, where she shot her career best score of 63
in the final round, and was tied for the lead on the back
nine at the CN Canadian Women's Open before fading to 3rd.
She notched five other top tens, another career best, including
her first ever top ten in a Major at the British Open and
a tie for third at the Jamie Farr and the HSBC Brasil Cup.
Her scoring average was also a career best, and she earned
twice what she had in her previous best season, 2011.
If Chella continues to improve at this rate,
expect her to become a genuine star on tour in the next couple
of years!
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