Background
Wi was born in Seoul, and moved to Los Angeles, United States at the age of 10.
Wi was born in Seoul, and moved to Los Angeles, United States at the age of 10.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley, after briefly attending the University of Nevada, Reno and had a successful amateur career before turning professional in 1995.
He has also previously played on both the European and Asian Tours. Early in his career, Wi played all over the world, competing on the European, Asian and Japanese tours. Wi earned his place on the Professional Golf Association Tour for 2005 when he successfully negotiated all three stages of the 2004 qualifying school.
However, he did not do well enough in his rookie season to retain his card, and went back to play on the Asian Tour in 2006, finishing 4th on the money list.
He also competed on the second tier Nationwide Tour, before returning to qualifying school where he regained his place on the Professional Golf Association Tour for 2007. In May 2011, Wi finished runner-up at a Professional Golf Association Tour event for the fourth time in his career losing to David Toms at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
Wi was seven strokes behind Toms at the halfway stage, but shot a 66 during the third round to take a one stroke lead into the final round. Wi held his lead until midway through the final round when Toms holed out from the fairway for an eagle and would eventually go on to lose by one stroke.
Wi finished as runner-up in February 2012 at the American Telephone & Telegraph Company Pebble Beach National Pro-Am after taking a three stroke 54 hole lead into the final round.
He shot a final round 72 to finish at 15 under, but lost out by two strokes as Philosophy Mickelson came from six back to claim the title with an 8 under par round of 64. This marked the fifth occasion on which Wi had recorded a second-place finish on the Professional Golf Association Tour in his career. Wi"s golf swing style fits the model known as stack and tilt, and he helped to choose this name.
He is coached since 2005 by Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer, who consider him the best example of their swing model: Today Charlie is thought of by many players as one of the best ball-strikers on tour, and he exhibits the moves we teach better than any other player.
If you want to know what Stack & Tilt should look like, watch Charlie Wi. Wi does not transfer body weight to the trail leg on back swing but moves the weight forward during the whole swing, even with the driver.
He performs a steep shoulder turn around a steady axis. 1990 California State Amateur European Tour wins (1) Asian Tour wins (7) DNP = did not play CUT = missed the half way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place.
Yellow background for top-10.
Professional Dynasty Cup: 2003 (winners) World Cup (representing South of Korea): 2006, 2009 Royal Trophy (representing Asia): 2009 (winners), 2010.
Married Cathy Wi; 1 child.