"the first choice of" is correct and usable in written English.
It is used when referring to a choice made first among several. For example: "Eating healthily was the first choice of the athlete."
He was the first choice of Protestants and Catholics.
He is the first choice of James Riley, a St. John's board of trustees member.
And because I was still alive I even had the first choice of wall".
But the first choice of her counselor, Roz Sternlieb, was the Rose Hill campus of Fordham.
Further, some of the candidates were not the first choice of Mr. Bloomberg, another aide said.
You were not the first choice of either the school board or the community.
Odom was not the first choice of Mike McGee, the athletic director.
The first choice of most people, like Nancy Monblatt, is to stay put.
The Frohlings' spruce had not been the first choice of the Rockefeller Center scouts.
The first choice of the stylebook and the dictionary is "tranquillity" with two L's.
"The old arrangement was that he had the first choice of my stable when he was available.
