The Monday Recap: Going for it

What a final round at The Players Championship!

The annual tournament held at TPC Sawgrass is considered golf's fifth major.

And the 2011 event lived up to that billing.

Korean K.J. Choi has never won a major, but came away from Sunday with a Players Championship title.

He earned victory after defeating David Toms in a playoff. Toms birdied the difficult 18th from a fairway divot to force extra holes.

However, it was Toms' decision on the par-5 16th that will determined his fate.

Had Toms elected to lay-up, his birdie on the 72nd hole would have been for victory rather than to tie Choi.

It's the old-age question in golf strategy - to go for it, or not.

Toms did, and paid the price after dropping his second shot into the water surrounding the 16th green.

Toms should have done what he did at the 2001 PGA Championship.

Toms was locked in a duel with Phil Mickelson, who was searching for his first major championship at that time. On the 72nd hole, Toms faced a critical decision - to go for it or not - just like Sunday's final round.

What Toms did was lay-up to within wedge distance, short of the water at Atlanta Athletic Club's 18th green. His decision paid off as he saved par and captured his lone major title, while sending Mickelson away without his maiden major triumph.

And because he chose to go for it at The Players Championship on Sunday, Toms gave up a chance to enter the final two holes with a lead.

Choi birdied the infamous par-3 17th that features an island green. Toms revved up the crowd with a birdie to force sudden-death on No. 18, but his decision ended up costing him the coveted tournament crown.

And that's what golf is - constant decision-making - because as the legendary Bobby Jones once said, "Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course ... the space between your ears."