Yang Yong-Eun is set for Shanghai for Asia’s first ever WGC event, a place that set the stage for him becoming Asia’s first Major champion.
Success is a strange beast. Ask Yang Yong-Eun and he can tell you. The rewards are both expected and unpredictable.
The media attention that has come with a first Major for Asian men years before, even decades before most experts would have predicted is a given. Taking a phone call from South Korea's president Lee Myung-Bak while wearing nothing more than a towel (Yang had just emerged from the showers) and being approached by former US president George W Bush while on a driving range in San Diego have come as something of a surprise.
Getting more love from the galleries, particularly in the States, is natural enough.
"Fans cheering for me and recognizing me and pronouncing my name properly, instead of calling me "Wie" or "Choi" helps," Yang says wryly, although he's now finding some American fans, perhaps unaware that the PGA Tour lists him using his initials Y.E., are yelling "Yeah Yang" at him.
Being eulogized for achieving something that for Asian men seemed at least a generation away, or for doing what many more storied players had failed to do - ending Tiger Wood's immaculate of 14 wins in 14 Majors when he held the lead at the start of the final round - comes with the heady territory Yang has stepped into. Being described, as he has been in some circles, as arguably the biggest surprise winner of a Major since Jack Fleck's U.S. Open playoff win over Ben Hogan in 1955 should be raising a few eyebrows.
Yang defeating Tiger shouldn't be considered a surprise. Fleck had only been on the PGA Tour for six months and had never won until he defeated the Tiger of his era. Yang secured his maiden PGA Tour win earlier this season at the Honda Classic, and besides, when it came to seeing off the undisputed king of his generation he'd done it before.
Until Hazeltine, comparing the landmark victories for Asian golfers was an imprecise art form (see sidebar), but Yang's 2006 HSBC Champions win is deserving of being considered one of the landmark wins for an Asian golfer. The pundits may have forgotten that Yang saw off Tiger in Sheshan three years ago, but the 37-year-old Korean hasn't. Indeed he's called on the sensations in every tournament since including his historic Major.
"Even to this day I try to revive the feeling I had that week," reveals Yang who, playing in the lead group on the final round, had Tiger right in front of him all day.
"It was such a big tournament and yet I played with such poise. I just remember being comfortable every day; no pressure, no stress, I just played comfortably every single day. I try to recapture that feeling in every tournament I play. It was my perfect tournament."
Hindsight and the status as a Major champion will change how Yang Yong-Eun's 2006 HSBC Champions win is perceived. Until he turned Tiger's two-shot overnight lead at the PGA Championship into an historic three stroke win with that beautiful 210-yard 3-hybrid on the 18th, it can be argued his Shanghai triumph was one of Asia's most under-rated victories and probably one of Asia's best.
Perhaps it was because, unlike the Shanghai winners prior and since, Yang was a relative unknown. 2005 winner David Howell was already in the world's top 20 and was a member of Europe's 2004 Ryder Cup winning team when he triumphed at Sheshan. 2007 winner Phil Mickelson had three Majors to his name and Sergio Garcia's leap to world number two after winning in Shanghai in 2008 speaks for itself.
The fundamental difference between Yang and the other HSBC Champions winners was that, while the others had already shown what they were capable of, the Korean's victory was a symbol of what he would go on to achieve in a late-blooming career. Now he has a Major under his belt, everything else he achieved previously will be looked on in a different light, but Yang says it was his 2006 victory in Shanghai that put him on the path that led to his historic victory.
"Winning the tournament set the foundation for bigger things to come. It gave me the courage to achieve bigger goals, like coming to play on the PGA Tour and of course winning the PGA Championship," explains Yang, widely known in his homeland by the nickname "Son of the Wind" given to him by the Korean media in recognition of his blustery birthplace Jeju island.
"There were so many things that happened, but in the bigger picture it definitely changed my career because it gave the strength that I needed and the courage that I needed and the belief that I could achieve bigger things."
"On the final day at the PGA Championship I was drawing on the memory of the feelings I had when I won in Shanghai. I was trying to recapture the calmness and the serenity and it worked. A lot of players are usually forced out of their element because of their strong desire to win, and thus try too hard sometimes. In my case at Chaska, I just tried to enjoy that moment, mainly because I had no pressure and I had nothing to lose."
Now with a Major and a US$1 million dollar win in the PGA Tour's 2009 Honda Classic behind him, Yang's HSBC Champions victory doesn't stand out as the exception in Shanghai's world-class roll of honour. But three years ago his laurels prior to seeing off immediate rivals in the reigning Open and PGA Champion Tiger Woods and 2004 and 2005 US Open Champions Retief Goosen and Michael Campbell were more modest. The 2006 co-sanctioned Korean Open win, which qualified him for the HSBC Champions, was only his second in his home country (after the 2002 SBS Championship). His other titles at that point had all come in Japan, four in total, including the 2006 Suntory Open. He'd arrived at Sheshan fresh from a play-off defeat against Japanese legend Shingo Katayama in the Japan Tour's ABC Championship high in confidence but by no means high on the list of potential winners.
"Playing on the Japan Tour back then, I didn't accomplish great things over there but my ultimate goal was to play on the PGA Tour and my time spent in Japan and in Asia was very valuable. I had bigger dreams, but playing on the Japan Tour was a process I had to go through to move on to bigger tours," he recalls.
To be Asia's first Major winner will always remain a remarkable achievement in a career that, like many of the Asian pathfinders, began by accident. The teenage Yang, living on Korea's honeymoon destination Jeju island, was destined to be a bodybuilder (not to be confused with his compatriot KJ Choi who was a power lifter and comes from another island Wando). Torn knee ligaments suffered in an unscheduled trip down a flight of stairs put paid to that career. Unable to train and clueless as to what he would do in his life, Yang was pointed in the direction of a local driving range and a job collecting balls. Between shifts Yang would mimic the swings of the customers and showed enough talent that he realized a job as a teaching pro, what the Koreans call a semi-pro, would be more lucrative. It was only then that he realized that there was another level of professional and so set his sights on becoming a tournament player.
Eighteen years after discovering the sport, Yang returns to Asia recognized not just for his Major win but for the fact that twice he has stared down Tiger and twice he has won. Yang, however, baulks at the idea that he might be considered Kryptonite to Wood's Superman.
"I just play like I am on my own, and don't get swirled into the competitive environment that the media sometimes develop. As I said, I am most comfortable and efficient when I am in my own terms," he says.
"I don't know how other golfers feel, but I suppose there might be a slight difference between them and me, because I have no reason to fear competing with Tiger. That doesn't mean I will beat him next time or that I will always beat him, but at the moment I have no bad memories from being in contention with him. I only have good feelings to draw on. People shouldn't call me the Tiger killer, maybe I've just been lucky a couple of times, but it does mean I have been luckier than most of the players who have fought with him for the big titles."
One can safely assume that Yang will also deal with his new-found fame on his own terms too. The Yang Yong-Eun who arrives at his continent's first WGC tournament seems unlikely to change from the warm-hearted, laid-back father of three he had been until that one week in August 2009 that catapulted into the pantheon, not only of Asian golf, but world golf too.
His patience was evident as this interview drew to a close and his middle son launched over-enthusiastically into a hug, catching Yang a painful blow in the midsection. Most fathers would be unable to hide a tiny flash of irritation, but Yang showed none. Just before leaving, Yang paused to consider the implications of the HSBC Champions stepping up to the WGC level.
"It is good to know that such a prestigious tournament has been elevated to WGC status. It proves that the tournament I won was a top, top class tournament," he states.
"For me personally, even if the tournament stayed in its original form it would have been fine with me because it was big anyway and I loved playing in it every year. The fact that it has been elevated to World Golf Championship status makes it harder for players to get in, but I welcome the challenge. It's definitely one of my goals every year to play myself into the HSBC Champions and I want to congratulate HSBC and the tournament organizers for being able to take the tournament to WGC status."
Since his 2006 victory Yang has been disqualified at Sheshan for signing an incorrect scorecard in 2007 and missed the 2008 tournament because it clashed with the PGA Tour Q School, yet he'll return to the Sheshan course eager to be back in the place where he really made his name.
"Every player has a favourite course, a course that really suits their eye. For some reason that course really suits me eye. That's why I'm really looking forward to going back there. This year, regardless of whether or not I had won the PGA Championship, I know I am going to feel at home there. I just feel really comfortable," he said.
Yang Yong-Eun - Profile
Born: January 15th, 1972 Jeju island, South Korea
Height: 5ft 9in
Weight: 195 lbs
Marital status: Married with three sons (Tony/Hyeon-Yoo, Kevin/Isu, Dickie/Kyung-Min)
Professional wins:
2009
PGA Championship, MAJOR
Honda Classic, PGA Tour
2006
HSBC Champions, co-sanctioned European, Asian, Australasian and Sunshine Tours;
Suntory Open, Japan Tour;
Kolon-Hana Bank Korean Open, co-sanctioned Korean and Asian Tour
2005
Coca-Cola Tokai Classic, Japan Tour
2004
Sun Chlorella Classic; Japan Tour
Asahi-Ryokuken Yomiuri Memorial, Japan Tour
2002
SBS Championship, Korean Tour
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