At T National

BETHESDA, Md. - Growing up in South Korea, K.J. Choi learned golf by studying instructional books and videos by Jack Nicklaus, whose Memorial Tournament he won five weeks ago. Today when he holed out from a bunker for a birdie at the 17th hole that virtually assured his victory at the AT&T National, Choi did a fist pump familiar to even casual golf fans. Did he learn that bit of theatrics from the tournament host, Tiger Woods? "No," Choi said with a laugh, "[it] came out naturally.

BETHESDA, Md. - The flight of his shot into the 18th green was so pure that Tiger Woods immediately started walking and twirled his club, knowing that it effectively wrapped up another win at the AT&T National. Making it even more special was the sound of thousands of fans at the Congressional Country Club to see it. One day after spectators were kept away from the course because of debris from a violent wind storm, they returned Sunday in full force and got what they expected - Woods in his red shirt, outlasting Bo Van Pelt in a back-nine duel, and posing with another trophy.

The arrival of the AT&T National as the Philadelphia area's first PGA event since 2002 has brought another rare appearance to the environs of Aronimink Golf Club: new jobs, and lots of them. From young girls staffing a card-table lemonade stand to a retiree waving cars into a backyard parking lot, the Newtown club is ground zero for a temporary respite from the nation's economic doldrums and high unemployment. Curtis Brown, laid off from a job disinfecting rooms infected with HIV and the H1N1 virus at Albert Einstein Medical Center, found $12.50 an hour to guard a parking lot in sweltering heat well worth getting a ride from his girlfriend to pull a 12-hour shift.

TIGER WOODS plans to be in the Philadelphia area on the Fourth of July weekend, playing golf at glorious Aronimink Golf Club as part of the field at the AT & T National. That is if the neck problem that caused him to withdraw Sunday from The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., will allow. Woods, who has held the world's No. 1 ranking for a record 599 weeks, visited Aronimink yesterday to promote the event, which aids his Tiger Woods Foundation. He spoke openly and easily to a room of about 200 people about his golf game, and didn't shy away from questions about his troubled personal life that has been fodder for tabloid shows, newspapers and websites since his infamous accident on Thanksgiving evening that started the news about his marital transgressions.

Justin Rose headed to the Philadelphia area for the AT&T National still smarting from a collapse at the previous PGA Tour event, where he started the final day with a 3-stroke lead and wound up in a distant tie for ninth. So when Rose sat for his post-round interview Saturday after firing a 3-under-par 67 to take a 4-shot lead heading into the final round at Aronimink Golf Club, he had every right to be terse when asked about last week, not wanting to relive the horror. Instead, Rose was up-front, candid, and eager to tell everyone that he can't wait to get out for Sunday's closing 18 to see what he had learned from the Travelers Championship outside of Hartford, Conn.

THERE WERE two winners at the AT & T National, which concluded Sunday at Newtown Square's Aronimink Golf Club. The first PGA Tour event in Philadelphia since 2002 went to England's Justin Rose, who held off former U.S. Amateur champion Ryan Moore by one shot to earn his second victory in a month, 1 week after he had squandered a similar third-round lead at the Travelers in Connecticut. Rose received just over $1.1 million for his efforts. But it was Aronimink that got so much more out of the week, despite the fact that the tournament's former host, Tiger Woods, was never a factor.

Patrick Cantlay kept his cool while all those around him were losing theirs. Playing a mature game, well beyond his age, Cantlay walked off, his head held high, with a 1-under-par 69 at the AT&T National at Aronimink on Friday. He had held his own on a course that left Jim Furyk looking at his shoes and also chewed up and spit out the feel-good-story of the tourney, Erik Compton - the golfer who survived two heart transplants - who finished 12-over. Cantlay shot a bogey-free round on a tough course, as many veterans admitted they thought that the bogeys were inevitable.

West Chester's Sean O'Hair, the lone Philadelphia-area resident in the AT & T National field, is supposed to tee off at 8:37 this morning from the 10th tee, along with Justin Rose and J.B. Holmes, in the opening round at Aronimink. That's assuming his back cooperates. O'Hair, who is coming off a tie for 12th at the U.S. Open, his second-best finish in 18 majors, had to leave the course riding in a golf cart yesterday after playing just a dozen holes in the pro-am. He said he originally injured his back last Thursday while working out. This time . . . "I hurt it pretty bad," he said.

Nick Watney remembers the day nearly 11 months ago when he couldn't finish the deal at the PGA Championship, and has managed to use those memories as guidance for when he enters the pressure-cooker of being in the final group with the lead at a PGA Tour event. Watney found himself in that spot Sunday in the AT&T National and handled himself beautifully. The 30-year-old from Las Vegas went without a bogey the entire day at challenging Aronimink Golf Club and carded a 4-under-par 66 to hold off K.J. Choi, capture his second win of the season, and take over the lead on both the tour's money list and in its FedEx Cup race.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem frequently used to hear the question, "When is the tour coming back to Philadelphia?" on a regular basis, and his answers usually weren't very encouraging: no sponsor, no available golf course, no open date on the schedule. However, now that the AT&T National has begun its two-year run at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Finchem appears a little more heartened by the possibilities of a tour event in the area, especially if the current event does as well as he thinks it will.

Tiger Passes Jack Well, yes. And then again, no. The golfer Eldrick Woods did, indeed, win another tournament, this one last Sunday, the AT&T National at sweltering, storm-lashed Congressional Country Club. In the process he crept ahead of Jack Nicklaus in career victories, a most impressive milestone and yet still not the one that Tiger covets most. No, that one, as most of us have known by heart for more than a decade, has 19 numbered on it, that being the total of majors needed by Tiger to overtake Jack.

BETHESDA, Md. - The flight of his shot into the 18th green was so pure that Tiger Woods immediately started walking and twirled his club, knowing that it effectively wrapped up another win at the AT&T National. Making it even more special was the sound of thousands of fans at the Congressional Country Club to see it. One day after spectators were kept away from the course because of debris from a violent wind storm, they returned Sunday in full force and got what they expected - Woods in his red shirt, outlasting Bo Van Pelt in a back-nine duel, and posing with another trophy.

BETHESDA, Md. - Brendon de Jonge had more birdies than people in his gallery Saturday at the AT&T National to take a 1-shot lead over Tiger Woods and two others. De Jonge had three birdies for a 2-under 69 on a bizarre day at the Congressional Country Club. An overnight wind storm toppled trees, leading tournament officials to keep spectators and all but essential volunteers off the course. Except for Woods, most players had no one watching. De Jonge was at 7-under 206 as he goes for his first PGA Tour win.   LPGA Tour ROGERS, Ark. - Veronica Felibert shot a 5-under 66 to stretch her lead to four strokes in the LPGA's NW Arkansas Classic.

BETHESDA, Md. - Bo Van Pelt kept bogeys off his card and picked up an extra shot when his wedge spun back into the hole for an eagle on Thursday for the lead in the AT&T National. On a day when the temperature was in the 90s and only seven players managed a score in the 60s, Van Pelt opened with a 4-under 67 on the venerable Blue Course to grab a 1-shot lead over Vijay Singh, Brendon De Jonge and Jimmy Walker, who bogeyed his final hole. Tiger Woods was never under par in the afternoon and opened with a 1-over 72. The AT&T National is inmaryland after two years at Aronimink in Newtown Square in 2010 and 2011.

BETHESDA, Md. - On a day when temperatures topped 100, Hunter Mahan still managed to make Friday at Congressional feel like a breeze. Mahan made seven birdies in the stifling heat for a 6-under 65, giving him a 2-shot lead at 7-under 135 going into the weekend at the AT&T National. Robert Garrigus had a a 67 and finished in second, along with Jimmy Walker and Brendon De Jonge, who each had a 69. Chris Couch sought medical attention and struggled to finish in the oppressive conditions.

BETHESDA, Md. - To Tiger Woods' way of thinking, people have short memories, as illustrated by the guy who asked him at Monday's AT&T National media day: "How will you know when you're back?" "Well, I won a tournament already," Woods said, sparking laughter from the audience at Congressional Country Club as he referred to his victory in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Woods' win - his seventh at Bay Hill - broke a PGA Tour drought that had stretched back to September of 2009, or shortly before the time his life started to unravel with revelations about his marital infidelity.

After a breakthrough season last year, Webb Simpson finally appears to be comfortable playing on the PGA Tour. And that's not necessarily a good thing. The way the 26-year-old North Carolina native figures it, sharper golf comes from not being comfortable, from having to overcome nerves in a tough situation. "I think as an athlete, you're so used to feeling nerves and performing under pressure," Simpson said this week in advance of his trip Monday to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square for an outing with Chase Sapphire card members.

TIGER WOODS is returning to the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the first time in 10 years. Woods announced on his website yesterday he will start his PGA Tour season Feb. 9-12 at Pebble Beach, which he said "might be the prettiest place on earth. " It has not been pretty enough to get him back to the Monterey Peninsula, except for the 2010 U.S. Open where he tied for fourth. Woods stopped playing because of greens that were exceptionally bumpy from a 180-man field. Now, the field is 156 players, and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club is in the rotation, and has been very well received.

Things just were not going well last spring and early summer on the PGA Tour for Sean O'Hair. He felt his golf game was improving but it didn't show in the results. He had missed 9 of 12 cuts, including the AT&T National at Aronimink Golf Club - his home course - and at the British Open, where he doubled-bogeyed the 36th hole at Royal St. George to finish 1 off the needed number. He felt patience and "staying in the moment" would lead to some success, and it happened rather unexpectedly the week after the British in late July when he captured the Canadian Open in a playoff, his first tour victory in 26 months.

DAILY NEWS STAFF AND WIRE Sean O'Hair won the RBC Canadian Open after tapping in for bogey on the first playoff hole yesterday, and then watching fellow American Kris Blanks lip out his bogey putt from just over 5 feet. It was the fourth PGA Tour win for O'Hair, of West Chester, but his first time in the top 15 during a season that had seen him miss 10 of 17 cuts. O'Hair, 29, started the day three shots behind leader Bo Van Pelt before shooting 68 to get into the playoff with Blanks (70)