Remembering Choi's 25 years on the PGA Tour

When the South Korean contingent shows up in strength at this week's The CJ Cup Byron Nelson — a legacy tournament which Sung Kang and KH Lee have tasted victories in recent years — they will look back with great pride the trailblazing exploits of one man who defied all odds to ensure the American dream isn’t quite the pipe dream.

- CHUAH CHOO CHIANG

This year marks the 25th anniversary of KJ Choi's historic achievement of becoming the first Korean to play full-time on the PGA Tour in 2000. He was driven by his life's mantra that “To be the best, you've got to play with the best’, and Choi proved he truly belonged.

Now 54 years of age, Choi enjoyed 498 starts in an illustrious PGA Tour career and amassed eight victories, seven runners-up finishes and 68 top-10s, earning US$32.8 million in prize money. His biggest victory was at the 2011 The Players Championship where he became the first Asian to win the Tour's flagship tournament.

Choi’s decorated career inspired others, including YE Yang and Charlie Wi during the 2000s, to follow in his footsteps, and Yang himself would write his own piece of history by becoming the first Asian male golfer to lift a major at the 2009 PGA Championship where he outduelled Tiger Woods at Hazeltine. Fourteen South Koreans have since earned PGA Tour cards since Choi planted the Korean flag on PGA Tour ground.