IT MAY have been one of the most horrendous days for golf in the recent history of The Open. KJ Choi last night compared it unfavourably with the equally horrible Saturday in Carnoustie in 1999. But nothing seemed to disturb this Korean’s remarkable composure.

Choi may have lost the status as tournament leader, having started yesterday as the only player in red figures, but his five-over par 75, hacked out in the worst of the gusts, puts him into the penultimate pairing with England’s Simon Wakefield, just two shots behind Greg Norman and still with a chance of becoming the first Asian golfer to win a major.

He had a few dicey moments yesterday, when the wind was at its height and the ball started to wobble on the greens. Once Choi seemed to be on the point of playing hockey, not golf. He stood and stared at his ball as the gusts attacked it, he lined up the putt on four or five separate occasions, pulled back, waited and had another look, as if the ball was possessed by the devil. Eventually, warily, he putted out.

Choi double-bogeyed on the sixth and again on the 10th, a hole where high scores became the norm and where Norman, his playing partner, also doubled. The pair were forced to wait on the 10th tee – at one stage, three pairings had congregated there – while the fuss surrounding Anthony Kim’s moving ball died down.

His problems on the sixth were more culpable. He found a pot bunker on the left of the fairway from the tee, could make no real advance towards the green as he hacked it out and was still off the green after his third. He chipped to within six feet but was unable to sink the putt. These two unmemorable holes represented the only occasion where he showed anything less than serenity and a capability to strike the ball beautifully in the most alien conditions.

He came in with three solid pars, and while he does not quite have the sensational aura of Norman, he did his country proud.

“Putting was the most difficult today,” he said afterwards. “The set-up and backstroke in the wind were testing. I still feel good about the round. I feel I played strongly and completely. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow but I feel comfortable on the course, putting will be important to catch up.” Of his strongest rival, he was smilingly effusive: “Norman is a very good player. He is very imaginative, more imaginative than me.”

Choi is nobody's fool, and he is no freak here at Birkdale. He has won seven times on the US PGA Tour. He is now 37, but relatively early into his golfing career, as he had never played the game until he was 16. The son of a rice farmer, Choi built up an athletic physique through weightlifting, his early main interest. He is called The Tank – although this is probably more down to the relative lack of stature of his countrymen, as next to the gigantic Norman, he appeared positively diminutive.

Can he win, and can he herald what might then become a mini-Asian assault on the majors? Until now, the triumphs of Korean women golfers have dwarfed those of the men. It is possible. There is no telling if Norman will get the trip, no telling if Wakefield will find the thin air at the top of the game a little too testing. If Choi can avoid disaster today, and maintain his serenity, then his conquest could be complete.