By PGATour.com – Jeff Babineau, @JeffBabz62

Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the most demanding links found anywhere in the world, and even across four unseasonably sunny days in Scotland at The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex, it asked a great deal of K.J. Choi. Each time it presented Choi a stern challenge to test his resolve, the stocky former powerlifter from Wando, South Korea, put his head down and answered, exhibiting the resiliency that has defined him in a starry and unlikely career.

Carnoustie is a survival proposition, man vs. elements, and not usually a place for sizzling sub-par runs. Thus, a sensational six-hole stretch played in 6 under par Sunday (Nos. 9-14) lifted Choi, 54, above the crowd and led him to his first senior major championship on Sunday. Despite a poor start to his final round – he was 3 over through six holes – Choi, who was protecting a one-shot lead to start the day, returned a 2-under 70 to win by two shots over Australia’s Richard Green in the final major of the PGA TOUR Champions season.

Choi struggled to manage the slower speed of Carnoustie’s greens to start his round on Sunday, and he continued to give away a lead he’d steadily built through three days. Just as he had rebounded from back-to-back double bogeys late on Saturday with a magnificent birdie at Carnoustie’s penal closing hole to get in with 70, he would bounce back from Sunday’s slow start, too, producing a stirring stretch of golf that separated him from the field.

Choi’s run started with a 10-footer for birdie at the par-4 ninth, his first birdie of the day, and he was just warming up. After a tap-in birdie at the par-5 12th, where he pitched to a foot from beyond the green, Choi stuffed an approach to 2 feet at the 165-yard 13th, then provided an exclamation with a 35-footer for eagle at the 513-yard 14th. There, he faced 235 yards for his second shot and needed only 195 yards to clear a bunker protecting the entry to the green. It called for a perfect 5-iron, and he pulled it off, his ball bounding onto the green and finishing 35 feet from the hole.

Check out “Watts” in K.J. Choi’s bag below.

Driver: Ping G430 LST (9°) – Shaft LA Golf

Fairway: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (15°) – Shaft LA Golf

Hybrid: Callaway Apex UT 19° – Shaft Shaft LA Golf, TaylorMade Stealth 2 Rescue (22°) – Shaft Project X HZRDUS

Irons: Srixon MkII (5-PW) – Shaft LA Golf

Wedges: Cleveland RTX6 Zipcore Tour Rack (50°, 54°, 58°)

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG Seven