PGA Championship Recap - Yang takes down Tiger

The Yin and the Yang Ends Up Being Just the Yang in the USPGA Championship

Tiger Woods hadn’t lost a 54 hole lead since 1996 in any tournament much less a major, but there he was on the back 9 of the 2009 USPGA Championship on Sunday with nothing to do but win.

Than along came Yang.  That could very well become the title of a major movie as Y.E. Yang, the South Korean whom the USPGA organizers put together to play with El Tigre on Sunday, even though Padraig Harrington was available to knock heads with Tiger again, beat the greatest golfer in the history of the game by three strokes to become the first Asian national to win a major on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods has been beaten.  That could be a headline in some of the major newspapers in the United States tomorrow.  It was a seriously fantastic final round for Yang who eagled the par 5 14th to put pressure on Woods.  Yang almost gave it up on the 17th when he bogeyed, but a terrific birdie on the 18th, after what will go down as one of the greatest approach shots in PGA Championship history from just off the fairway, sealed the deal.

It was Yang who kept his cool in the final round of the USPGA while Woods, Mr. Cool himself who just a week ago mentally exhausted Paddy Harrington in the WGC-Bridgestone, who couldn’t keep it together.

Tiger just didn’t have it.  He looked beaten both physically and mentally throughout the entire final round.  He looked almost heart broken on the 14th after Yang’s eagle, upset on the 17th after missing a par that would brought him even with Yang, and flat beat up on the 18th after his approach shot found the edge of the green.

Woods didn’t have it, but Yang did.  It was an amazingly confident run for Yang who began his improbably victory on Saturday by shooting an incredible 67 on Saturday.  His victory was incredible but also made history as 2009 now becomes the first time in golf history where all four majors have been one by someone who wasn’t ranked in the top 10.

As far as Tiger is concerned, his streak of winning one major every year since 2005 comes to an unceremonious end.  Tiger will be back, of course, but he may never regain the form he had right before blowing out his knee in the 2008 U.S. Open.  Even if he does, Y.E. Yang proved on Sunday that the talent level has become much better on the PGA Tour then it even was just a few short years ago.

How did Y.E. Yang win?  It comes down to perspective.  Tiger is used to just playing his game, not thinking about his opponent while his opponents are so entranced with him that they make mental errors on course.

The roles were reversed this Sunday.  It was Y.E. Yang who went out there and just played a round of golf, not concentrating on what Tiger was doing, just concentrating on his own game.

That’s we he won.  Yang just hit the golf ball and because of that, he is now a major champion.