Tiger Woods failed to extend his streak of consecutive years with at least one major victory after losing to a virtually unknown underdog today at the PGA Championship. Korean Yong-Eun Yang became the first Asian man to ever win a major and did so in dramatic fashion. I’ll let Yahoo! Sports’ Martin Rogers get to the details:
The gallery started to believe on 14, when Yang chipped in with a miraculous eagle to wrest the outright lead. But the inner confidence had lain within well before that, ever since the final-round pairings fated these two men toward a Sunday tandem.
“I had thought recently about playing with Tiger and I was surprised it came about so soon,” Yang said through an interpreter. “But I wanted this, I wanted this challenge. At times it could be intimidating because of what Tiger is capable of but I wanted to live it.”
A previous PGA Tour victory at the Honda Classic this year showed his mettle, but was no real preparation for rigors such as these. There were precious few signs of nerves, though.
The 17th was a blip, a poorly struck putt resulting in bogey as Woods uncharacteristically faltered alongside him. Coming down 18, though, it was Yang who looked stronger, rifling in a superb approach to effectively wrap up the title.
The golfing gods didn’t smile on their favorite son this day, instead deferring to a player ranked 110th in the world yet with the strength of a champion.
The celebration after his winning birdie putt on 18 was a joy to behold, as Yang seized his golf bag and hoisted it aloft like a weightlifter. A few minutes later he struck a similar pose again, this time with the Wanamaker Trophy.
“This might be my last win as a golfer,” Yang said. “But it sure is a great day. It means the world to me; it hasn’t sunk in yet but I know the significance of it.”
Does Yang’s victory today announce the start of a new torrent of Asian (or at least Korean) men’s golfing champions? Probably not. But it does certainly seem to be part of a growing trend of Asian countries’ (particularly the East Asian countries of South Korea, China, and Japan) ever-rising relevance in America’s most popular sports.
In any case, now isn’t the time to reflect on the long-term implications of Yang’s victory, but (well, at least for Koreans around the world) it’s an important day for just the one win. Yong-Eun Yang will be a household name starting Monday morning (which as of the writing of this post, it already is in Seoul) and for today at least in America, he’s the man that brought down Tiger.
