Nobody Yang Does What No One Could

CHASKA, Minn. -- He didn't start playing golf until he was 19, and even then it wasn't on the best facilities, as golf didn't matter in South Korea. Then, he joined the Army for two years, where he was a low-level guard. And it was only after that before Y.E. Yang realized that golf had something called a touring pro.

So it's no wonder Tiger Woods didn't show him one tiny bit of respect this weekend. Truth is, Woods didn't show any golfers respect in the PGA Championship, taking a lead after two rounds and then playing ridiculously safe for two, figuring none of the tour's other players, apparently all Bozos, could ever catch him.

Truth is, the others had earned his disregard. But Yang beat him anyway.

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Playing with Woods and, theoretically, all the crushing pressure that goes with that, Yang shot a 70 Sunday, five strokes better than Tiger for the day.

Tiger became a Kitten. Yang won the PGA Championship.

He also became the first Asian-born player to win a major. He finished off a failed year for Woods. And also, he threw a gigantic wrench into the belief system of American youth sports, which is now about turning small kids into professionals. Turns out, your kid doesn't have to have his sporting future decided by the time he's 4 years old after all.

"I sort of visualized this quite a few times," Yang, who's 37, said through an interpreter. He finished the tournament at 8-under, three strokes ahead of Woods. "Going into the final round of a major championship. I've seen a lot of players with Tiger in the final round have folded.

"I tried to visualize [over the years], tried to bring a mock strategy of how to win if I ever played against Tiger."

When it was over, Yang, who actually beat Woods once a few years ago, grabbed his golf bag with both hands, raised it over his head and pumped his arms. He walked over the bridge toward the scoring trailer, and fans underneath were chanting for him, and he raised his arms again. Yang is a wholly likable character. During the round, you would see him wave to the TV camera, as if he had never been in front of one before.


On the 11th fairway, as he walked past, someone yelled "Make him work for it, Yang man." He looked up, smiled, nodded.

What Yang didn't notice was that whenever a fan would cheer for him, the fan's friend standing next to him would be giggling.

Everyone just assumed that Yang would fold or, more likely, Woods would take it.

Instead, Woods didn't seem to think he needed to take anything. He didn't fearlessly fire at the flags from the fairways. That's the Tiger who has thrilled everyone. This Tiger was firing safely for the middle of the greens, sometimes even laying up on par-5s.

"When you've got 640-yard par-5s, I really can't get there," Woods said. "I don't know how aggressive I can play."

Woods finishes the year without a major title, 33 years old, after major knee surgery. In his race for Jack Nicklaus' record 18 major titles, he is stuck at 14. He'll still get there.

Don't worry.

But while Woods is the world's most famous sportsman, golf still got a huge boost in the past week in its hopes of finding new turf to conquer. The old ground is starting to dry up.

First, an Olympics committee recommended that golf be included in the Games in 2016. It is only a rubber stamp from final approval.

And now Yang sent a message to Asia: "Hopefully," he said, "all young ballplayers fill their dreams and expand their horizons a little bit."

The women's tour is filled with Korean players already, though, spurred on originally by the success of Se Ri Pak, who won the U.S. Women's Open. Why haven't Korean men arrived on tour?

Yang said it was because Korean men have to serve in the military in their 20s, interrupting their golfing prime. Also, he cited bad facilities. And the Korean women, he said, feel that they are close enough to the same physical size as the U.S. women on the LPGA Tour to compete. But on the men's side, he once said, "the physical aspect, I think they just get too scared and they don't even give themselves a chance to even come and try."

That's going to change now.

"I tried to visualize ... how to win if I ever played against Tiger."
-- Y.E. Yang While everyone kept waiting for Woods to pull ahead, or just do something, anything, Yang chipped in for eagle at the 14th hole for the lead. At No. 16, he dangerously fired right of the pin, and nearly went into the water.

Gutsy? Not exactly. Nervous. He was aiming left.

When he and Woods reached No. 18, Yang led by a stroke. And he hit his second shot, over 200 yards, from the fairway to about eight feet from the hole.

Nervous luck? No, he planned that one. And it buried Woods.

And whatever comes of this, here's to hoping the biggest thing is that American psycho sports dads take note.

"I think everybody was aware of Tiger's reputation," player Padraig Harrington said, "when he was 2."

True. And Woods' success, as a kid built for golfing greatness, led to an awful lot of drooling dads forcing their kids hopelessly onto the same path. It started a dangerous movement in American youth sport. And you might notice the disgusting site of Little League children pumped up as rock stars on national TV this week.

It worked for Woods. But by the time Yang was 22, he was thinking about being a golf instructor, or maybe into golf course construction. Then someone told him about tournaments. So that's when he started dreaming. He was in his late 20s, early 30s before he started visualizing what he might do with a chance against Woods.

And look how he did.