Golf: Choi’s back, LPGA match play set for desert

From SCOREGolf magazine editor Jason Logan’s weekly Bits, Bites and Barbs column:

So great to see Toronto’s Albin Choi back competing on the Korn Ferry Tour, finishing tied for 14th in the LECOM Suncoast Classic last week after Monday qualifying for the event. Choi was without any playing status and sidelined last year with a wrist injury. He spent time caddying at a Florida club to make ends meet and filled in as South Korean star Sungjae Im’s caddie when Im won the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic last February. It was the biggest paycheque of Choi’s career … Choi’s plight is well-documented. His mother died by suicide when he was in college and Choi, a star at N.C. State before turning pro, has played the game in her honour since. He has a win on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada and five seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour under his belt but no sustained time in the show despite many projecting him for stardom. As per a Golf Digest story, Choi has found new financial backing in the form of retired aviation mogul David Storch, whom he met while caddying … The LPGA Tour has announced a new match play competition for late May at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, the opulent and acclaimed desert course that hosted a Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson exhibition match in 2018. The women’s circuit has not had a match play event since 2012 and while qualification for the 64-player field has yet to be announced, Canadian Brooke Henderson will obviously make the grade.