Chopra enjoying spoils of victory, but quickly back to work at Sony
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
HONOLULU, Hawaii -- When Daniel Chopra walked into Sansei, the popular sushi restaurant near the Ritz-Carlton at Kapalua, on Sunday night, he got a standing ovation from several tables of people dining there.
People recognized the man with the distinctive white hair who had just won the Mercedes-Benz Championship at the airport, too. When he walked toward the putting green at Waialae Country Club on Tuesday, though, it was back to business as usual.
"The security guy over there didn't (know me)," the good-natured Chopra said with a chuckle. "He wanted to see my ID."
The last 48 hours still have been something of a whirlwind for Chopra, who beat Steve Stricker in a four-hole playoff at Kapalua on Sunday. The victory, which propelled him to the top of the FedExCup standings, was the second of Chopra's career.
After he finished the requisite TV and print interviews on Sunday evening, Chopra visited with Mercedes executives for a while before going to clean out his locker. He and his wife, Sam, then relaxed with a glass of wine in the players lounge before dinner.
As the couple caught its breath and reflected on the day's events, they kept going back to one thing -- the victory earned Chopra an invitation to the Masters. His win late last year in the Ginn sur Mer Classic had not made him eligible for the year's first major.
"Getting into Augusta has been the neatest thing," Chopra said. "It just seems like the attention seems to be more over this one. It's very enjoyable to feel you have actually done something very special. ...
"And kind of validating that first win, so it's been very good."
After he got by that zealous security guard on Tuesday, Chopra signed autographs and posed for pictures before being stopped by a reporter. As he talked, Robert Allenby stopped to offer congratulations, and several other hands were outstretched.
He's gotten a lot of voice mails and text messages, Chopra admitted, although when asked if there had been hundreds, he smiled and said, "I don't have that many friends.
"But all the people who mean something to me have all been very happy as well, so there has been a lot of joy spread far and wide," said the man who was born in Sweden and raised in India.
Chopra said he normally wouldn't play the week or two after a win. The Sony Open in Hawaii was his first event as a PGA TOUR member, though, and Chopra says it has a "special place in my heart." He really likes Waialae Country Club, too.
"I love the entire West Coast swing, and I couldn't skip these events," Chopra said. "Ordinarily, I would have taken a little time off to let it sink in and enjoy the moment a little bit. Bit this was my first-ever event on the PGA TOUR so coming back here is always very special."
Waialae, which is framed by the Koolau mountains on the north and Pacific Ocean on the south, couldn't be much more different than the Plantation Course where Chopra won last week. The Seth Raynor design is essentially flat and wide-open where the Kapalua layout cascades up and down the West Maui mountains.
"This golf course probably doesn't suit me quite as much (as the Plantation) but I love it still," Chopra said. "I love playing it. It probably makes me have to work a little bit harder at it, but when you do that you focus. I've managed to perform well on courses that definitely don't suit my game, and ones that do, so it's just a different mindset."
And Chopra has a lot of good things to think about these days.
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