Players Championship: Fred Couples withdrew, KJ Choi getting ready to defend the title – Golf News
Fred Couples has announced to withdraw from the Players Championship because of illness. The tournament is slated to start from Thursday, May 10, 2012.
Couples was not a part of the 144-man field at the TPC Sawgrass, as he was an addition to the tournament after he recorded a win in the Senior Players Championship.
Therefore, he will not be replaced by any other player as a substitute. Couples has an excellent record at the event as he recorded two victories in the history of the event.
His last victory came in the 1996 edition of the tournament and his fans were looking forward to another good run by him in the event this year.
The Masters Champion Bubba Watson also pulled out of the tournament because of his plans of spending some time with his son.
Dustin Johnson and Anthony Kim are the other two players who had to remove their names from the published field of the event due to injuries.
In the meantime, KJ Choi is getting ready to become the first player in the history of the event to successfully defend the title at Sawgrass.
Choi was the first Asian player to register a victory in the event that is also known as the fifth major event of the year.
This year, he does plan to record another win, yet, his stats does not support him to achieve his goal.
Choi has made 10 starts so far in the 2012 PGA Tour season and succeeded in making eight cuts.
The best finish of the season came in the season opener Hyundai Tournament of Champions where he tied for the fifth position.
Thereafter, he never came close to the top position in any of the events he played. In the Northern Trust Open, he tied for 24th place, which is his second best finish of the season so far.
Therefore, it is difficult to say that Choi will be able to defend the title successfully. However, one can really expect anything from Choi as he is one of the most unexpected players on the PGA Tour.
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