Chopra goes the distance to first PGA Tour title

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — How to define Daniel Samir Chopra?

He is truly a world player, and not just because he has played on nearly every continent where tiny white spheres are chased by men with sticks.

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It took awhile to get there, but Daniel Chopra finally has a PGA Tour trophy. (AP)	Â

His parents are of Swedish and Indian descent and his wife is an Aussie. But he’s lived in the United States for years and has quickly fallen into the All-American lifestyle, to the point that he bought a flashy red Lamborghini a few years ago. He dies his brown hair blonde and wears it in spikey, moussed-up fashion.

Thus, he’s a bit hard to label.

“Does he know what he is?” cracked native Swede Fredrik Jacobsen. “He’s been a world traveler for a long time. He’s probably played as many tours as anybody.”

Finally, Chopra fits the best characterization of all — as a winner on the PGA Tour.

It took parts of five slow, wet days to achieve, but Chopra outdueled Jacobsen and Japanese star Shigeki Maruyama shortly after dawn on Monday morning to win the rain-delayed inaugural Ginn sur Mer Classic by a stroke at 19 under.

This was a victory that’s been a long time coming, both in time and miles logged. Chopra, 33, who has had numerous shots at winning and played in the final round with eventual winner Tiger Woods last year at Doral, has played on no fewer than 10 different world tours.

“Climbing the ladder,” he said.

Now he’s reached one of the top rungs. Because of his heritage and pedigree, there could be celebrations breaking out on at least three continents. He was born in Sweden, which is his nationality of record, but moved to India just before his eighth birthday. He speaks English, Swedish and Hindi, though his Australian-born wife, Sam, jokes that he’s fluent in that tongue, too.

“If you are looking for what to call him,” she said, laughing, “I call him a Swindian.”

A few hours earlier, you could have called him downright nervous. Chopra, mindful of his missed opportunities in final rounds over the past couple of seasons, said he woke up at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, knowing he was tied with Maruyama and Jacobsen with three holes left to play.

“I played those holes over and over in my mind,” he said. “But never did I play them like I did today.”

 

True enough. Chopra had to fight his way home, making a birdie after hitting his tee shot into the rough on the 16th, the easiest hole of the week. With Jacobsen and Maruyama playing in the group ahead of him, having the par-5 16th left was an advantage that Chopra didn’t waste.

Though he hit a 3-wood off the tee for precision, it landed in the rough and he pulled out a 9-wood he’d added to the bag this week specifically to extricate balls from the course’s deep Bermuda rough. There was one problem.

“I’d never hit it once all week,” he said.

He nonetheless hacked it back into the fairway, then tossed a wedge to within nine feet and rolled in the birdie putt for a lead he wouldn’t surrender. He drove into a fairway bunker at the 18th — he missed his last five fairways — but clipped a 9-iron to within 25 feet and two-putted with relative ease for the victory.

“When you tighten up, that fairway shrinks,” he said.

In addition to being the only overnight co-leader with the par-5 16th left when the horn blew Sunday night signaling the end of play, it was probably a boon for Chopra, who had started the back nine with a four-shot lead and blown every bit of it. Monday, he could finally admit that darkness was a blessing in disguise.

“I was wound up pretty tight last night,” he said.

Chopra’s journey to the top requires an atlas and Dramamine.

He turned pro in India at age 18, played on several circuits in Asia before heading off to play the developmental tour in Europe. In 2001, he faced a difficult decision that changed his life.

He had qualified for the final stage of European Tour Qualifying School and had advanced to the second stage of Q-school on the U.S. tour. Trouble was, both they were scheduled for the same week.

Even for a guy who said he watched the PGA Tour broadcasts on European television religiously while playing overseas and always aspired to reach the U.S. big leagues, the decision was no less difficult. If he didn’t advance beyond the second stage of U.S. Q-school, he would have had no status anywhere.

He made the right call. Chopra eventually made a clutch five-footer on the final hole at a course outside Orlando to advance to the U.S. qualifying finals, eventually securing a spot on the Nationwide Tour, where he played in 2002-03 and won twice. He fought his way through the final stage of U.S. Q-school in late ’03 at the same fateful Orlando site, Orange County National, to lock up his PGA Tour card.

If he hadn’t taken a flier and forsaken the European Tour finals five years ago, “I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” he said.

Now he has a nice home near the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, is a member of famed Isleworth Country Club, where Woods and several other stars reside, and has truly realized his American dream.

All those years ago, watching telecasts of the vaunted American tour from a couch overseas, he had a singular goal.

“I couldn’t wait for it to start,” he said of the weekly broadcasts. “I was waiting for the day I would have my name on that leaderboard.”

Now he’s atop it, which speaks volumes in any language.