Choi Kyung-Ju (born May 19, 1970) is a South Korean
professional golfer, who is better known to golf
fans in many countries as K.J. Choi. He is the most
internationally successful Asian male golfer of all
time, though he has not achieved the same level of
success as several of his South Korean female
compatriots such as LPGA hall of fame player Se Ri
Pak and Grace Park have in women's golf.
He was born in Wando, South Korea. After
establishing his career on the Asian Tour, where he
picked up his first professional win at the 1996
Korean Open, and the Japan Golf Tour, where he won
twice in 1999, Choi qualified for membership of the
U.S. based PGA Tour by finishing tied 35th at the
1999 qualifying tournament. He was the first Korean
to earn a PGA Tour card. In his rookie season in
2000 he finished 134th on the money list and had to
requalify, but since 2001 he has been a consistent
performer on the tour. In 2002 he became the first
Korean to win on the PGA Tour at the Compaq Classic
of New Orleans, and followed this up with another
win at the Tampa Bay Classic in the same year. In
2003 he won the Linde German Masters on the European
Tour.
Choi won Jack Nicklaus's Memorial Tournament in
2007. He mentioned on CBS during the AT&T National
that he read Jack Nicklaus's "Golf My Way" book
early in his golf career, which assisted him in
becoming the golfer he is today.
Choi won the first AT&T National hosted by Tiger
Woods at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda,
Maryland. The trophy is a small replica of the
United States Capitol building in Washington, DC. He
made a spectacular sand trap shot on the 17th hole
for a birdie to clinch the win over Steve Stricker
by 3 shots. Choi was a crowd favorite and threw his
golf ball into the crowd after holing his sand shot
on the 17th hole.
Choi represented South Korea in the WGC-World Cup in
2002, 2003 and 2005, and was a member of the
International Team in the Presidents Cup in 2003 and
2007. In August 2007 he reached the top 10 of the
Official World Golf Rankings for the first time. In
January 2008, Choi won the Sony Open in Hawaii and
rose to world number 7. In March 2008, Choi reached
fifth place in the rankings. He has spent over 20
weeks in the top-10 of the rankings.
Before picking up golf Choi was a competitive power
lifter, being able to squat 350 pounds as a 95 pound
13 year-old teenager, thus aptly nicknamed "Tank" by
South Koreans.
After his 7th PGA Tour victory at the 2008 Sony Open
in Hawaii, Choi donated $320,000 of his earnings to
the victims' families of a warehouse fire in Seoul,
South Korea which killed over forty people.
