By Jonathan Sanfilippo
Staff Reporter
Despite having his best round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Saturday, Choi Kyoung-ju still finds himself far off the lead.
Playing in gorgeous weather, the South Korean golfer shot a 4-under 69 in the third round of the Professional Golf Association (PGA)'s season-opening tournament at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
But that wasn't nearly enough to make up for his struggles the previous days. After shooting 79 in the first round and 75 in the second, Choi has a three-round score of 4-over 223, putting him 17 strokes behind the leader, Mike Weir of Canada.
Weir shot a 68 on Saturday to give him a score of 206 after three rounds, putting him one shot ahead of American
Nick Watney, who shot a 67 on Saturday.
Sweden's Daniel Chopra and American Jonathan Byrd were two strokes off the lead.
The top 12 players were separated by five shots, including defending champion Vijay Singh of Fiji.
Choi's struggles at the tournament might come as a surprise, considering the success he had last year. In 2007, he ranked fifth in the PGA Tour in earnings with $4,587,859 (4.2 billion won) and ninth in scoring average with a 69.61, while finishing fifth in the FedExCup standings with 103,765 points.
He placed in the top 10 at seven PGA tournaments in 2007, including wins at the Memorial Tournament in June in Dublin, Ohio, and the AT&T National in July in Bethesda, Md.