Hlas: Instant legend whips Woods

CHASKA, Minn. - In 1955, a man from Bettendorf named Jack Fleck denied Ben Hogan his fifth U.S. Open title by beating him by three strokes in an 18-hole playoff.

For over a half-century, it has been considered golf's greatest upset. Today it shares that distinction.

Something happened here Sunday. The law of averages finally won one over Tiger Woods.

Y.E. Yang, who perhaps wasn't even a household name before Sunday in Jeju-do, his South Korea home island, is now a global sensation at the expense of a global icon.

Yang shattered a myth and shook the sports world with the same ferocity as which he lifted and pressed his golf bag at the 18th green of Hazeltine National.

Woods lost to Yang in the PGA Championship, a major tournament. But Woods has failed to win majors before. He's won “only” 14 of 50 since he turned pro. He's finished second six times, once behind Zach Johnson at the Masters.

Some might have you believe otherwise, but this planet contains more than one pro golfer.

But no one had ever beaten Woods at a major when he led or shared the lead going into the final round. Fourteen 54-hole leads, 14 deal closings, most of them forceful, even ruthless.

We'd seen it so many times. Those who have the temerity to join Woods for the final pairing Sunday would end the round quivering, with a broken spirit and a good idea of what it's like to try to defend a kick-boxer by covering your face.

And those were just the guys who started the last 18 holes tied with Woods. Yang began play Sunday spotting Tiger two shots. Why not make it two dozen, it won't matter anyhow. Right?

But though he wore his traditional blood-red Sunday shirt, Tiger wasn't his normal bloodthirsty self this time. His game was all right from tee to green, but for a change, his putter failed to emit magical sparks.

Tiger Woods made it official. No one on the planet can make a 12-footer any time it's necessary to do so.

By the fourth hole, Yang had caught Woods on the scoreboard. He slipped back a stroke a couple of times, but caught Woods again at No. 12. At No. 14 came one of those shots CBS and Golf Channel and maybe even The History Channel will rerun in 2010. And 2020, 2030 and 2040.

From the fringe, Yang made a 60-foot chip for eagle.

Yang, bang!

The Korean gripped that lead tightly the rest of the way, even with a hiccup bogey on 17. He threw some final lightning at Tiger and the rest of us on the final hole when his approach shot from 206 yards out almost hit the flagstick. Woods' second shot, meanwhile, nestled in rough just off the green.

After Woods missed his birdie chip, Yang sank his 10-footer for birdie. He was a 37-year-old who went from being a 70-to-1 underdog (his own term Saturday night) to the first Asian-born player to win a men's major.

Woods began playing golf as a toddler. Yang didn't pick up the game until he was 19.

After he got past Saturday night's excitement of learning he would be in the final pairing on Sunday, Yang said, via an interpreter. “My heart nearly pounded and exploded being so nervous, actually.

“I tried to go to sleep a bit early yesterday, ended up watching a lot of golf TV and a lot of myself on TV. It was really exciting.”

Yang's caddie, A.J. Montecinos, is a native Chicagoan of Italian and Spanish descent. He said the only Korean phrase he knows is the equivalent of “I'm hungry.”

But he knew he hooked up with a winner before this year on the PGA Tour began.

“He's just not scared,” Montecinos said. He's just a world-class player, and you know, he's got nothing to lose. He said ‘I'm not nervous.'

“I've never been around a more tough mental competitor in my life.”

That's what everyone else in golf says about Woods. But any given day, huh? Fleck beat Hogan, and people still wonder how. Yang beat Woods, and they'll ask the same thing for a half century.

“As soon as I got onto the first tee,” Yang said, “I became myself. It's always what I've dreamed about. It was always what I sort of visioned.

“I wasn't that nervous, honestly, because it's a game of golf. It's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against Tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you with his 9-iron.”

Still, Yang's not ready to go back into the cage with Woods anytime soon.

“As far as the question concerning the rematch, never again,” he said, “I would like to stay as the guy who won over Tiger at the PGA Championship, and that's about it. No re-dos.”

Jack Fleck never needed one, either. You beat an immortal heads-up one time, your place in history lasts forever.