On the final Sunday of every month -- no matter the weather -- a group of Korean golf enthusiasts from the Augusta area converge on a selected golf course for an 18-hole tournament.

They've been doing it for more than 21 years, under the banner of the Korean Golf Association.

The monthly tournaments are part of a day of fellowship for the descendents of the East Asian country. The events, which start at 1 p.m., are followed by a sit-down dinner that stretches into the early evening.

The first-ever tournament drew 15 golfers to Gordon Lakes Golf Course, said Phillip Song, a founding member.

"Some older (Korean) people played golf and we joined in," Song said. "Then we got about 10 to 15 to start playing other golf courses for social golf. After a year, we kind of organized and selected a president and had prizes for the winner."

There are now 44 association members.

Thirty-one of them turned out for September's Presidents Cup tournament at Jones Creek Golf Club in Evans.

Among that group was 48-year-old Yong Lee, who is considered the association's "Tiger Woods," said fellow member Young Kim.

"He wins seven to 10 tournaments a year," Kim said of Lee. "He wins more than anybody else."

Lee estimates he's won more than 80 Korean Golf Association events since moving to Augusta in 1990 and almost immediately joining the group.

He didn't add to his victory total in the tournament at Jones Creek.

It was won by association president Phillip Han, who beat Kim on the first hole of sudden death with a birdie on No. 10. They shot 3-over-par 75 from the blue tees.

THE BIGGEST DRAW of the association, according to Han, is friendship.

"We're from Korea; we don't have too many friends," he said. "We're connected because everyone has the same hobby."

"We have a really tight relationship between all the members, not just playing golf, but socially we very actively relate to each other," said vice president Harry Kim.

Kim added the association is so popular that "whoever joins, they don't leave us."

"Most of the Korean people have a business and they are so busy," said Young Kim, who owns and operates a gas station in the Pumpkin Center community. "Once a month, they relieve all the stress by playing golf. Nobody can stop you."

And, apparently, neither can the weather.

"If the golf course lets us play, we play," Han said. "If it's lightning, and they ask us not to play, we stop. Until then, we play. Because it's hard to make the schedule, once they come out to play, they want to finish it up."

"Even if it's pouring down rain, we try to play two or three holes," Young Kim said. "Everybody comes out there."

Atlanta has its own Korean Golf Association, but its members aren't as dedicated as those in Augusta. The Atlanta group doesn't hold tournaments during the winter months.

According to Han, the coldest Korean Golf Association tournament in Augusta might have been at Gordon Lakes Golf Course in the early 1990s.

When the players got to the island green on the par-3 sixth hole that day, they discovered the water surrounding the green was frozen.

"We'll play on the coldest day; we don't really mind," Young Kim said. "We are very serious. You know the people who say it is too cold? Korean people don't care. They got that mental discipline from working so hard."

MEMBERS PAY YEARLY dues of $120. Entry fee into each tournament is between $80 and $100, depending on the course. It covers their golf and the dinner afterward at one of three Korean restaurants in Augusta.

At the dinner, which usually lasts about 21/2 hours, that day's championship flight winner is presented a trophy and a gift certificate. The winner of the first flight, which plays the white tees, is also honored.

"We're a nonprofit organization, so we spend all the membership dues on the members," Harry Kim said.

GOLF IS THE sport of choice for many Koreans in the area.

A sampling of the members at the Jones Creek tournament came up with various theories on why Koreans enjoy the sport so much.

"We love to play; gamble and stuff," Lee said.

Because the association's "Big Five" of Lee, Young Kim, Han, Bruce Choi and Steve Choi are scratch golfers, Han believes Koreans might have a special talent for the game.

"There is a lot connected to the mental game," said Han, noting the recent dominance of Koreans on the LPGA Tour. "I think Korean people have a strong mental side, so they like this kind of sport."

It is a sport most of them never played in their homeland, where a round of golf can cost $300.

"When I came here, I didn't know anything about golf," Song said. "We know soccer. In Korea, golf is more widespread now, but in people's minds, playing golf is for the upper-class people.

"As we kind of got stabilized in this new country, we'd see one person play golf and that's how it got started," Song said.

Then there was the impact of Korea's Se Ri Pak, who stormed onto the LPGA Tour in 1998, winning four times.

"She was very famous; that's when everybody picked up golf," Song said.

EACH YEAR, THERE are "two or three" new Korean Golf Association members who become part of the extended Korean golf family. The newest one is Kevin Park, who moved from Atlanta to Augusta about two months ago.

"This (Korean) golf community is really famous in Atlanta," Park said. "I read about it in a Korean golf magazine. I thought it was interesting, and I asked a couple of guys and here I am."

The association is perfect for Park, who wants to make Korean contacts.

"I'm a new member of the Korean community so I like to meet a lot of Koreans," said Park, who did just that at his first post-round dinner.

"We have quite a good time at the dinner with a couple of beers with the guys. It's interesting. I've made some good friends," he said.

THE PRESIDENTS CUP event that Han won at Jones Creek in late September is one of four special events the association holds each year. In February, there is the Augusta Cup, followed by the Korean Masters in April and the Summer Classic in July.

The Korean Masters is a huge event, drawing Koreans from the Southeast and a few from other states. (This year's winner, Yun Sik Joe, came from New York.) The field usually numbers about 120 players, but as many as 160 have played.

The competition is so stiff that Lee, the Augusta association's top player, has never won it.

Han, 42, has been a member of the Korean Golf Association since 1989. After serving for eight years as the group's secretary, he's in the final year of a two-year term as president.

"It's a hard job to have, but I have a responsibility because I've stayed in this organization for almost 20 years," Han said. "The old-timers have retired. They helped me so much that I feel like I have to help other people, too."