Golf Question of the Week: Is Daniel Chopra for Real?

Not a bad run for a guy who finished 115th in last year’s FedEx Cup standings.

What had been a rather blasé 2007 for Daniel Chopra finished with a flourish, as the Swede won his first-ever PGA TOUR event last fall at the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro. That victory earned him a spot in last week’s season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, where he made it two victories in his last three PGA TOUR events after beating Steve Stricker in a sudden-death playoff – and three top-three finishes in his last five.

This, coming from a guy who had spent the bulk of 2007 alternating modest cashes with missed cuts (12), a DQ and a WD. What gives?

Skeptics will cry “luck,” and point to a win against a less-than-stellar field at the Ginn (one of several Fall Series events typically played without most of the game’s top golfers), and a Mercedes victory that lacked the presence of four of the game’s top 10. Supporters will tell you “a win is a win is a win,” and that regardless of a Mercedes field minus Tiger and Phil, Chopra still beat 30 other TOUR winners to claim that trophy – including major champions Jim Furyk, Mike Weir and Vijay Singh (not to mention a red-hot Stricker).

All of a sudden, Chopra has gone from ho-hum to hold-the-phone. He now has an invitation to Augusta to compete in his first-ever Masters, and gave himself an early boost in his quest to make his first-ever European Ryder Cup team.

So what can we expect from Chopra as the 2008 season progresses? Is his recent success merely a blip on the radar, or a sign of even bigger and better things to come? Coming off a year where Michelle Wie couldn’t make the cut in a TOUR event but a 5-foot-tall sophomore in high school could, I suppose anything’s possible.

But I’ll leave it you, my fellow golfing Beach Bloggers who know more about Chopra’s game than I do, to tell me what we can expect. Let us know what you think.

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