Hlas column: Y.E. Yang almost brings a dodo to life at the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Perhaps the most famous shot in the seven centuries of golf history was a double-eagle made here 76 years ago yesterday.

It's still called “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” after all.”

Gene Sarazen used a 4-wood to hole his second shot from 225 yards on the par-5 No. 15 at Augusta National in the fourth-round of the Masters. That helped get him into a 36-hole playoff the next day, which he won against Craig Wood.

The double-eagle, which Sarazen called “a dodo,” was as rare then as it is now. It wasn't worth quite as much then, though. Sarazen earned $1,500 for his Masters title.

There have been two double-eagles in the Masters since, by Bruce Devlin in 1975 and Jeff Maggert in 1994. Thursday, playing with Zach Johnson and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Y.E. Yang came no more than 18 inches from one on the par-5 13th hole.

“I had about 240 yards left, and it was in a good position,” he said through his interpreter and manager, Ryan Park. “I used my 2-iron hybrid. I thought to myself, if I hit the center of the green, I have a good chance to make eagle.

“Fortunately for me, it went really into the middle. It was about less than a foot left, and I basically just tapped it in for eagle.”

I was among the eyewitnesses. I can't say I'd ever seen a tap-in eagle before in person. I'm not sure I've seen one on television. It was one of those things that made you go “Did that really just happen?”

Yang followed that bit of near-lore with birdies on 15 (he had a 20-foot putt for eagle) and 16 to get to 7-under-par and briefly share the tourney-lead with 21-year-old prodigy Rory McIlroy, who had a bogey-free 65. But the South Korean bogeyed his final two holes to settle for a 67 and a share of third-place with countryman K.J. Choi behind co-leaders McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros.

“He putted the ball nice, hit the ball nice, put himself in positions, good positions to make some birdies,” Johnson said. “It was fun to watch. He let a couple slip at the end but it happens here.”

Johnson didn't have as interesting a story to tell about himself. He shot a 1-over 73.

“I just misclubbed a couple times that just put me in absolutely brutal positions,” the 2007 Masters winner said. “And I know where to miss it out here and I still put myself in those positions.

“I really was not that bad. I hit some good shots, I had some opportunities, kept it below the hole when I needed to keep it below the hole. A couple 3-putts, I think, probably got me today. I yipped one on 2 (for a bogey), a 3-footer. Just a bad putt.”

There have been days on this course when Johnson was the member of his threesome or twosome who got most of the applause. This day, it was Yang. Like Johnson, he knows the feeling of winning a major championship. He didn't back down against Tiger Woods in the final round of the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Minnesota in becoming the first Asian to win a major.

“Winning a major is not a privilege but more of an honor, really,” Yang said. “And with that honor comes a lot of confidence whenever you head out to the field, not just in a major, but also in other tournaments.

“So coming into the Masters, or in any other major, it's no longer a dream for you, and it does wonders for you once you know that it's something that you can grasp, and it's a possible sort of objective.

“With that thought in mind, you no longer think that it's unreachable and it's an extension of your imagination.”

Don't you wish your manager delivered your thoughts so eloquently to the world?

Don't you wish your client was capable of almost making a double-eagle at Augusta?