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SOUTHPORT, England — The Best Player Never to Have Won a Major is a silly, arbitrary honorific. It's a compliment, really, and K.J. Choi has as much claim to the title as anyone. With seven PGA Tour wins and seven international victories, he's 11th in the World Ranking. When he won the AT&T National last July and tournament host Tiger Woods handed him the trophy, the king and future king cracked jokes and laughed. The symbolism was irresistible.
Having won the Memorial hosted by Jack Nicklaus only a month earlier, Choi was on top of the world.
"Here's your trophy, big guy," Woods said.
"Yours is heavier than Jack's," Choi quipped.
A year later, after a relatively flat 2008 season thus far, Choi is delivering on his promise. He shot 67 Friday to get to one under for the tournament, one ahead of Greg Norman at the halfway point of the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale.
"It comes well to my eye," Choi said of links golf, through an interpreter, after making birdies on the 17th and 18th holes. "I can see my target and go for it. I feel very comfortable out there."
Camilo Villegas birdied his last five holes to shoot the low round of the tournament, a 65, and was alone in third place at one over.
Padraig Harrington (68), U.S. Open darling Rocco Mediate (73), Jim Furyk (71) and David Duval (69) headline a group of seven players at two over.
Like Norman, Duval presented an intriguing narrative: a man well past his prime, who at times hasn't even been a full-time pro, suddenly turning back the clock. Until Friday, he had missed 10 cuts in 12 starts on Tour this season, with one WD and a tie for 60th. His dizzying fall from the top of the game is part of golf lore, but on Friday, at least, he was playing like it was 1999.
That was the year Duval shot 59 to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, the zenith of his career, even though he claims the 2001 British Open among his 13 victories. (It was also his last.) The day after Duval's 59, players and caddies were astonished when they got to the driving range at the Phoenix Open, the next week's tournament, and found Duval beating balls in the Monday morning sun. He was relentless, and unbeatable.
Then he fell apart. Back trouble led to swing trouble, and he began to hit the kind of wild shots that ended the career of another Open champion, Ian Baker-Finch. He recorded just one more top-10 finish after a T4 at the 2002 Memorial.
Duval hardly played at all in 2007, staying at his home in Denver while his wife endured a difficult pregnancy. Nowadays he wakes early to play by himself at Castle Pines Country Club, then goes home to be a father to their five kids. He has felt close to his old form for a while, he said after Friday's round, but hasn't scored.
"I told my wife the first trophy would be for her," Duval said, "and the second will be for the kids."
Twenty men were within five of the lead, and with gusts of up to 45 mph forecast for Saturday's third round, players and fans were bracing for a wild finish.
Pre-tournament favorite Sergio Garcia slipped to a 73 and was at five over, while Phil Mickelson rallied with a 68 and made the cut at seven over.
"I'm still fighting," Mickelson said. "But I need serious weather and I need those [leaders] to struggle."
Choi, nicknamed Tank for his unwavering drive as much as his square physique, stole the headlines from one of the week's least likely success stories.
