Meet my new golf hero — K.J. Choi.

Why?

Well, besides winning "Tiger's Tournament," the AT&T National, last week to join Tiger, Phil, Vijay and Zach as the only multiple winners on the PGA Tour this year, K.J. has supplied an answer to a question often asked me: How come Korean men aren't as good in golf as Korean women?

Maybe not in numbers like on the LPGA Tour, but Choi has proven that Korean guys can be just as good.

So move over ladies, the Koreans have finally found their leading man to join South Korea's leading lady of golf, Se Ri Pak.

Anthony Kim, the youngest rookie on the PGA Tour this year, voiced the opinion that Choi is even bigger than Pak back in their native country. Choi's and Pak's, that is. Kim was born in Los Angeles.

Choi admits that he and Pak are walking on a similar path as pioneers of the sport in their homeland.

"You can't really compare the two of us (as to) who is better, who is more popular," Choi said after his victory at the Congressional Country Club near the nation's capital.

"She was a pioneer on the LPGA Tour. There may be another Se Ri Pak that's following in her footsteps. There may be another K.J. Choi that's following in my footsteps."

Just as Pak was the first South Korean to win an LPGA event, Choi also broke ground by being the first from his country to win a PGA Tour event, the Compaq Classic in New Orleans in 2002.

That got Choi into his first Mercedes Championship at Kapalua, Maui, the following year, and he still holds the 18-hole record of 11-under-par 62 in the third round at the Plantation Course.

I remember asking Choi about the lack of success of Korean men as opposed to the women in professional golf. Choi said he hoped his breakthrough victory as the first Korean to earn a PGA Tour card will influence more of his countrymen to take up golf and try to play on the American tour. He hopes to see more Seoul Brothers joining him.

Golf wasn't that big a deal for him when he was growing up, according to Choi. In fact, he was a weightlifter until his high school physical education teacher told him to take up golf and forget about weightlifting.

"He told me to take up golf. More money than weightlifting. Good advice," said the personable Choi.

With total earnings of nearly $15 million, including $3.24 million this year, it has turned out to be quite a career move for the stocky (5-foot-8, 185-pound) 37-year-old from the rice-farming island of Wando, who lives in Houston with his wife and three children.

Quite the family man, Choi always insists that his kids be around when he's presented the winning trophy. Lifting them, trophy and all, is no problem for the former weightlifter.

Now he has two special trophies this year, winning tournaments hosted by arguably golf's two greatest players — Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus — in a span of five weeks.

Which was the bigger thrill, getting a trophy from Woods or Nicklaus, Choi was asked.

"Both wins are just very special to me," he said. "I can't really say which one makes me feel better. They are both valuable. One thing I can say is Tiger, this week's trophy is a lot heavier than Jack's trophy, if that means anything."

You can take a guy out of South Korea, but you can't take knowledge of weights out of a former lifter.

The AT&T National, though, is the biggest of his six tour victories, according to Choi, whose initials, K.J., are an abbreviation of his given name, Kyoung-ju. And what also made it especially exciting was that it came before the biggest Korean gallery that he has seen on the PGA Tour.

Now his goal, Choi says, is to be the first Asian to win a men's major. Pak has won five women's majors, including two in her 1998 rookie year.

So the Korean men trail in that numbers game as well.

Choi and Kevin Na, who moved to Los Angeles when he was 8, are the only South Korean natives on the tour right now. Kim sort of counts, with an asterisk.

Meanwhile, that 34 Koreans are exempt on the LPGA Tour is mind-boggling. More than 40 qualified to play in the U.S. Women's Open with 27 making the cut and eight posting top-10 finishes, counting the four that tied for 10th place.

One of them, In-Bee Park, who finished tied for fourth, was asked why there were so many good Korean women players.

"I guess they really work hard. (But) I don't know. Maybe it's in their blood," she said.

But why not Korean men, given the same love of the game?

"Good question," Park replied. "I think it's really a lot tougher to get on the PGA Tour than the LPGA Tour . . . because there's just a lot of men playing golf out here."

That's pretty much what Choi also told me.