Yang-tastic! Tiger Bested by Y.E. Yang at PGA Championship

The game of golf witnessed a dramatic and historic moment today when Y.E. Yang of South Korea sank his birdie putt on the 18th green of Hazeltine National Golf Club and sealed his victory at the 2009 PGA Championship. In winning his first major title, Yang also became the first Asian-born golfer ever to win one of golf’s four majors.
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↵It was an amazing achievement, and yet in the aftermath the milestone most likely to be highlighted by the media will focus on the man that he beat. Yang started the day two strokes back of the 54-hole leader, Tiger Woods, golf’s most fearsome closer. In surpassing Tiger to take the title, Yang became the first golfer to beat Woods at a major when Woods held at least a share of the lead after 54 holes.
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↵He managed that almost unthinkable feat by playing steady, unflappable golf and pulling off some huge shots in big moments on a day when Tiger’s putter failed him over and over again. The turning point of the round came at the par-4 14th hole with Yang and Woods deadlocked at 6 under par. After Tiger chipped out of the bunker and left himself with a 12-foot putt for birdie, Yang chipped in from the fringe for eagle to take the lead at 8 under. Tiger answered by holing his birdie putt to go to 7 under, but for the first time in the tournament, his name was no longer atop the leaderboard.
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And because of Yang’s steely play over the final four holes, Tiger never would regain the lead. After both players parred the 15th and 16th holes, and then traded bogeys on the 17th, Yang brought back memories of Shaun Micheel’s famous iron shot on the 72nd hole of the 2003 PGA Championship, sending his approach right over the pin and giving himself a nine-foot putt for birdie.
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↵As it turned out, that all but sealed the deal, as Tiger lofted his second shot on 18 into the first cut just off the green. He took direct aim at the cup with his chip-out and sent it well past the hole, leaving Yang to finish the job in the fashion of a true champion, nailing his birdie putt for the victory, no doubt sending all of South Korea into one hell of a party by doing so.
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↵To put it mildly, Tiger will not be partying tonight. Fourteen times previously he’d gone into the final round of a major with the lead, and 14 times he’d walked away with the title. Sunday might have been no different were it not for the fact that he simply could not buy himself a big putt when he needed one. The first image one will remember of the final round will be of Yang’s eagle chip at 14, but the second unquestionably will be a montage of Tiger’s missed putts, pushed an inch left or an inch right or curling up just short of the hole, provoking yet another helpless outburst from a man accustomed to roars of triumph on the back nines of big tournaments.
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↵Many a golfer has given Tiger a run for his money before at majors, and some of them have been unlikely foes – Bob May at the 2000 PGA, Chris DiMarco at the 2005 Masters, and of course, Woods’ playoff partner at the 2008 U.S. Open, Rocco Mediate. But it goes without saying that Y.E. Yang is by far the unlikeliest of the bunch.
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↵Ranked 110th in the world, Yang becomes the third lowest-ranked golfer to win a major, and given the fact that he overcame Tiger Woods to do it, you’d have to class his victory as an upset to go alongside the likes of Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson. Going into the round, there were many scenarios one might have envisioned, but for this writer at least, Y.E. Yang holding steady to the end and getting the better of Tiger wasn’t among the top 10.
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↵A far more predictable outcome would have been a duel between Tiger and 2008 PGA champion Padraig Harrington, who at 6 under par started the day, like Yang, just two strokes back of Woods on the leaderboard. But Harrington suffered a disaster of almost unimaginable proportions for a professional golfer at the par-3 eighth, putting his ball in the water twice during the course of shooting a

bogey eight that immediately catapulted him out of contention.
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↵For Harrington, it was an eerie flashback to a week ago when, playing in the final group with Tiger at the Bridgestone Invitational, he took an eight on the par-5 16th to end what to that point had been an exciting duel with Woods.
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↵With Harrington out of the running today, one might have expected a similar result -- Tiger waltzing to the finish line and picking up the Wanamaker Trophy for the fifth time and his 15th major title overall. But his determined and seemingly nerveless South Korean playing partner had other ideas.
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↵On a day when Woods, if only for the moment, was uncharacteristically mortal, Yang ascended to golf immortality, becoming the first Asian-born major champion, and doing it by staring down one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.↵