Yang Yong-Eun never suspected when he fell in love with golf at age 19 that he would become a sporting pioneer for billions of Asians and outclass the world's top player in a man-to-man battle.
Yang Yong-Eun never suspected when he fell in love with golf at age 19 that he would become a sporting pioneer for billions of Asians and outclass the world's top player in a man-to-man battle.
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But that's exactly what has happened for the 37-year-old South Korean, who won the PGA Championship on Sunday by three strokes over World No 1 Tiger Woods and became the first Asian man to win a major golf championship.
"Until I was 19, after I picked up my first golf club, I was like anybody else in the world, just an 'Average Joe,'" Yang said. "As I started to pick up golf I fell in love with it. I have the best job in the world doing what I love most."
Yang fired a two-under par 70 at Hazeltine, the longest course in major golf history, and with a chip-in eagle at 14 and birdie at 18 forced 14-time major winner Woods to settle for second, the same place he had here at the 2002 PGA.
"If you look at him as a player overall, Y E has always been a wonderful ball-striker and I think the only thing that has held him back was the flat stick (putter)," Woods said.
"Today he went out there and executed his game plan. He was driving the ball beautifully, hitting his irons in the correct spots. He didn't make a lot of putts but he was doing what you have to do."
Blustery breezes blew at flag-stiffening speeds. Wind gusts whipped through concession tents and set treetops dancing. Woods had never lost a major when leading after 54 holes and had not been out of a share of first since Thursday.
Then came the Tiger tamer. Y E Yang? Why not Yang?
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| Yang Yong-Eun |
"I wasn't that nervous because it's a game of golf," Yang said. "It's not like you're in an octagon (for mixed martial arts) where you're fighting against Tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you with his nine-iron.
"The worst I could do was just lose to Tiger and go a few ranks down in the final scoreboard. Nobody is going to be really disappointed that I lose. So I really had nothing much at stake and that's how I played it."
Some of golf's greatest stars have melted under the pressure Woods applies, especially in a final round. But Yang's humble, care-free attack plan proved the right tonic to silence the roar, de-claw the Tiger and cut down the Woods.
"I guess the fearlessness comes from the fact that I'm doing my dream job," Yang said. "Every day I'm living my dream. I also have this mentality where I try my best and leave no regrets. If it doesn't work out, that's that.
"I guess if I do have courage, that's where it comes from."
Woods began golfing at age two, 17 years earlier than Yang. That gap is a lifetime for Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, the teen prodigy who this week became the youngest player in PGA Championship history.
Woods, who returned from reconstructive left knee surgery in February, can relate to how Yang picked up golf. Yang was an aspiring bodybuilder who tore a knee ligament and gave up gym workouts when a friend turned him to golf.
"The first grip I ever had was a baseball grip and just whacking it into the net," Yang said. "It just felt fun. That's how it all started."
Where it will finish, only time will tell.
"You never know in life," Yang said. "This may be my last win as a golfer.
"But it sure is a great day."
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