Choi Kyung-Ju

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Choi Kyung-Ju
Hangul:	최경주
Hanja:	崔京周
Revised Romanization:	Choe Gyeong-ju
McCune-Reischauer:	Ch'oe Kyŏng-ju

K.J. hits a drive during a 2005 PGA Championship practice round at Baltusrol Golf Club.

Choi Kyung-Ju (born May 19, 1968) is a professional golfer, who is better known to golf fans in many countries as K.J. Choi. He is the most internationally successful South Korean male golfer so far, although he has not achieved the same level of success as several of his female compatriots such as 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 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. He has featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

Before picking up golf K.J. 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.