By LARRY FINE

K.J. Choi, enjoying his finest season on the PGA Tour, credited a putting grip he purchased after watching a TV commercial.

The South Korean has won twice this season - at The Memorial in June and the AT&T National in July - and is fifth on the U.S. Tour money list with $3.67 million in earnings.

Choi, 37, was moved to grab the telephone and order an extra thick grip for his putter after the special TV offer promised it would help square the putter face, take the wrists out of the putting stroke and encourage use of the shoulders.

"The funny thing was that the grip worked as promised," said Choi. "Because the grip is thick, it's fat, it naturally makes you use the shoulders when you putt. I thought it made sense, so I picked up the phone and I ordered it and it came. It did look ridiculously big. I practised with it and felt like it was working for me but I still hesitated to take it out to a tournament because of how big it was."

Choi finally decided to use it at Congressional for the AT&T. "I made a big decision to use it during the tournament, and it just worked very well and exactly as I thought. It's really worked very well so far."

®2007 Reuters