TOUR Insider: AT&T National

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In the last three plus seasons, including results so far in 2008, only four men have won at least once in each season. Readers deserve a large red, white and blue sparkler if they can name them. Or at least a little bragging rights against their friends.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are naturally obvious selections. Adam Scott, if you count his unofficial playoff win at the 2005 Northern Trust Open, qualifies.

Halleran/Getty Images)

K.J. Choi already has one win in 2008. Can he defend the title only he holds for another victory?

RELATED LINKS

Complete tournament coverage
Tiger's pre-event interview
Choi's player profile page
Choi's 2008 results
Choi wins inaugural event
Emotional win for Choi
Tiger's event was instant classic
More from last year's event
Video: LIVE@ is coming

The other man is K.J. Choi.

For the second time in six weeks, Choi is defending a title, being the inaugural winner of the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods. Contested again over the Fourth of July weekend, the $6 million AT&T National returns to the Blue Course at Colonial Country Club in Bethesda, Md., promising more fireworks, even if the host is on the inactive list.

Though recently experiencing a lull in recent weeks -- he hasn't broken par since the Shell Houston Open, and he's missed three cuts in his last four starts -- Choi has been a firecracker of a player on some challenging courses. His latest conquest came in the season's first full field event, the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he fought gusting winds to close out a three-shot victory for his seventh career title.

Not that Choi is counting wins.

"All I can do right now is just try my best and just try to fill this empty cup that's out there, keep on filling it up," the native of Korea who has settled in The Woodlands, Texas, said after his Sony Open triumph. "There's a lot of improvements that I need to make, and all I can say is I'll just keep on trying my best."

Choi, 38, has been working intensely to improve his game and conditioning, and even though he had two victories last year, he believes he's a better and more complete player heading to the Washington, D.C. area.

"I think my shots, my swing is a lot different than what it has been in the past, the way that I condition my body, the way I've been training for the past few years, so it's got a lot better," said Choi, who credits instructor Steve Bann for helping him progress. "I'm more fit than in the past. And I think because of that I'll be able to play a little bit better. In terms of overall flow of the game, I think it will be better than the previous years."

Winning Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament and Woods's inaugural AT&T National put Choi in a special category last year. He seems to be doing that with more frequency.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS:

• The 120 players who tee it up this week on Congressional's Blue Course might feel a sense of déjà vu. Devereux Emmett designed the Blue Course in 1922, which has hosted three U.S. Opens and will host a fourth in 2011. It has been renovated a number of times, but its current profile is the work of Rees Jones, whose redesigns include Torrey Pines South, site of the recent U.S. Open, and Oakland Hills Country Club, near Detroit, which hosts the 91st PGA Championship in August.

• At 7,255 yards, the par-70 Congressional Blue isn't long, but it held up well against the professionals last year. The field average was 71.543 -- or more than 1.5 strokes over par for the week. That made Congressional the ninth most difficult on the PGA TOUR in 2007. Similar scoring this week would place it 10th overall on the '08 list of toughest tracks, just ahead of Pebble Beach Golf Links.

• Jim Furyk is the only player in this year's AT&T National field to have finished in the top 10 at last year's inaugural event and in the 1997 U.S. Open. The former U.S. Open winner, still looking for his first victory of 2008, tied for third last year at Congressional and was joint fifth at the '97 Open. Furyk also might have an added edge over the field: his caddie, Mike "Fluff" Cowan, is a member at Congressional.

• Furyk is one of 10 players who made the cut in both last year's event and the '97 Open, a group that also includes host Tiger Woods. But only five others have returned for the second year in a row to the AT&T National: Billy Andrade, Stuart Appleby, Fred Funk, Jesper Parnevik and Steve Stricker.

• Appleby will be an interesting figure to watch this week as he leads a contingent of 13 Australians in the field. The seven-time PGA TOUR winner was the 54-hole leader at Congressional last year before a final-round 76 dropped him into a tie for third. Three weeks ago at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, he suffered a similar kind of meltdown, shooting 79 on Saturday after leading through 36 holes.

• First-time TOUR winner Anthony Kim, 22, who broke through earlier this season at the Wachovia Championship, has switched management firms, joining International Management Group, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

• Though he finished off the pace at the Buick Open, Chris DiMarco is starting to show a few signs of life. He ended up tied for 70th at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, but that was his fifth finish in the money after missing eight of his first 11 cuts of the season. His tie for 13th at the Travelers Championship lifted him 25 spots into 141st place, inside the magic 144 cutline for the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

• Kevin Na withdrew from the Buick Open after nine holes because of chest pains. He is supposed to play this week at Congressional where he missed the cut with rounds of 71-75 last year. Na, 26, was even on his round when he withdrew. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was given an electrocardiogram and released.

• Boo Weekley and his wife, Karyn, had their second child June 23, a son they named Aiden O'Neal. Weekley, whose last start was a tie for 26th at the U.S. Open, doesn't plan on playing again until the British Open, where he tied for 35th in his first appearance a year ago.

• Fred Couples, who has three top-10 finishes this year after missing nearly all of the 2007 season, is competing for the first time since the Memorial Tournament. He might be ready to add to his 15 TOUR titles at a place with which he has great memories. The two-time PGA TOUR Player of the Year and former Masters champion earned his first career victory at Congressional with his 1983 Kemper Open win.