No minor accomplishment
Yang beat long odds in stealing PGA show
Based on the way the first three majors had played out, it’s no surprise that the loser of the PGA Championship received just as much, if not more, attention than the winner. Tiger Woods trumps Y.E. Yang every time, especially when the upstart from South Korea just completed a first: beating Woods when the world’s top-ranked player took a lead into the final round of a major.
If the four biggest tournaments of 2009 had a common theme, it was how tantalizing the runner-up stories were. Imagine if we had these four as major champions this year: Kenny Perry (Masters), Phil Mickelson (US Open), Tom Watson (British Open), and Woods (PGA). Instead, we have Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, and Yang, the first time since the world rankings were created in 1986 that all four majors were won by players ranked outside the top 30 at the time of their victory.
All the credit goes to Yang. How refreshing it was to see someone paired with Woods in the pressure-cooking cauldron of major championship Sunday, and totally enjoying himself. He was waving to the camera, smiling, even throwing a ball into the gallery. Yang appeared loose and confident, with nothing to lose. Maybe that’s the attitude to take with Woods. Those who have been paired with him when a tournament is on the line often play defensive, fearful of making a mistake. Woods, to his credit, forces that mind-set because he so rarely gives any opponent an opening, but when he didn’t capitalize on early opportunities Sunday and wavered slightly, Yang was there to take advantage.
Woods was bound to lose a final-round major lead sooner or later, but the credit should go to the shots that Yang pulled off down the stretch. His 60-foot chip for eagle on the 14th hole and 206-yard hybrid to 8 feet on the 18th hole and subsequent birdie will always be remembered, but those weren’t the only impressive shots down the stretch. Yang found the fairway on the 16th with water on both sides and hit his approach closer than Woods, hit the green on the 17th hole (unlike Woods), and found the fairway on No. 18, all while holding a one-shot lead. Impressive stuff.
Yang’s victory is historic for other reasons, too. He’s the first Asian-born player to win a men’s major; coming days after the vote that moves golf a step closer to becoming an Olympic sport in 2016, it will be fun to see if this win reverberates around the world at all, especially in the Far East. Thousands of girls took up golf when Se Ri Pak won the 1999 US Women’s Open; 10 years later, dozens of South Koreans have LPGA Tour cards, and many point to her win as the motivation. Will the same thing happen in response to Yang’s win, especially when he beat arguably the most famous athlete on the planet?
As for Woods, for someone so proficient at protecting a lead at a major, things went very wrong at Hazeltine National. His weekend scores of 71-75 were bettered by 25 players, and his putter let him down in the final round. Which could be further proof of how tough the game is, because everybody has rounds where they hit it well but can’t score. Even Woods, we learned on Sunday, isn’t immune. We just hadn’t seen it before.
It’s the first time since 2004 that Woods didn’t win any of the four majors, and now he has eight months to stew about it until next year’s Masters. While not rooting for either player, the opinion here is that what we saw in Minnesota is good for the game. We’ve seen Woods win and win and win, by eight and 12 and 15. We hadn’t seen this before. Now let’s see how both players respond.
Emptying the rest of the PGA notebook:
■What do Cabrera, Graeme McDowell, and Kevin Sutherland have in common? They were three of the 12 players who made the cut in all four majors this year. The others: Perry, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Henrik Stenson, Camilo Villegas, Ross Fisher, Vijay Singh, Rory McIlroy, and Sean O’Hair. For the record, Woods missed the cut in the British Open, and Mickelson didn’t play at Turnberry.
■In case you missed it, it warrants a quick mention again: When Woods plays, and is in contention, people watch. Third-round coverage of the PGA on CBS was up a whopping 390 percent. Sunday’s final round saw a 150 percent increase.
■The longest measured drive from the PGA was Cabrera’s 395-yard blast on the par-5 15th hole during the second round. Other statistical leaders: Francisco Molinari hit the most fairways (45 of 56, .804), Yang the most greens in regulation (55 of 72, .764), and Steve Flesch took the fewest putts (108).
■With all due respect to Judy Rankin, I think the Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee is the best golf analyst on any network. Being a former PGA Tour pro helps, but he’s able to spot tendencies and nuances, convey them in a way that a typical viewer can understand, and he’s not afraid to be critical of anybody, Woods included. If viewers didn’t learn something from the way Chamblee broke down Woods’s weekend problems (his ball-striking Saturday, his putting Sunday), they weren’t paying attention. I might not agree with Chamblee all the time, but I find myself turning the volume up when he’s talking.
■Author Dan Jenkins, honored again for covering 200 majors (the PGA was No. 201), was asked to name his top five golfers of all time. Predictably, the humorist gave six: “I’ll have [Ben] Hogan No. 1. The greatest shot-maker who ever lived, and he won more in a shorter period of time. I never saw him play, but how do you leave out Jones? Hogan, [Bobby] Jones, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Tiger, [Jack] Nicklaus. Hard to go up against that.’’ As for the best major he ever covered? “I think the ’60 US Open at Cherry Hills stands way above the rest of them because it was Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan meeting on that fabulous afternoon of golf. The past, the future, and the King. It was great.’’
Kohler hopes to hit it flush
Five questions for Herb Kohler, the plumbing company magnate and owner of Whistling Straits, which will host, for the second time in six years, the final major when the PGA Championship returns to Wisconsin in 2010.Q: In 2004, Whistling Straits was the longest course in major championship history. Now it’s No. 4. Any interest in trying to reclaim that title?
A: I have no control over such things. I don’t know if anyone can influence [managing director of tournaments for the PGA] Kerry Haigh, be it the owner of the course, or whomever. We have the capability of going back to 7,600 yards, but Kerry I’m sure will play it somewhere between 7,250 and 7,600 on any given day, and no day will be alike.
Q: The PGA in 2004 was successful on many fronts. Anything you want to improve on?
A: [Course architect Pete Dye] already changed the 18th hole about four times, so that will play very different. You look at [Nos.] 16, 17, and then the 18th, it’s really a series of challenges that can throw a tournament either way.
Q: There were 35,000 people at Hazeltine National [last] Sunday. Is this an encouraging sign?
A: Very encouraging. I don’t see a lot of corporations out there with the names on their foreheads, but a lot of people. People want to see this tournament, and that’s very encouraging.
Q: Do you have to lower expectations for next year?
A: No question, but benchmarks were established in 2004, and we’re going to try our darndest to best every one. Those were records, both in dollars and units, and they haven’t been touched since then. The fans that we have in Wisconsin have an awfully good chance at coming back next year. If this economy is on the rise, look out.
Q: Are you anxious to bring everybody back to your playground?
A: I want to wait for this economy to turn. Give it a chance.
Donald is plagued by inflammatory diagnosis
>There was a recent story in a British newspaper describing Luke Donald Disease, but The Telegraph wasn’t reporting on some new medical condition that happened to be named after the dashing Englishman. It was a rather inflammatory opinion piece suggesting that Luke Donald is the poster boy for what’s wrong with professional golf these days.The story says, in part: “In his eight-plus years, Donald has won four third-tier events [two each on the PGA and European tours], made a minor rustle in one major [T3 at 2006 PGA] and somehow collected over $15 million in prize money for such an indifferent effort.
“His backdoor top-five finish [recently] at Turnberry, where he didn’t need to execute a single shot in the crucible of actual contention, was vintage Donald. Thanks for the cameo. Thanks for the check. Now back to the States for more of the same.
“Donald isn’t a bad guy. In fact, he’s quite a pleasant fellow. He just isn’t a driven one. And it’s easy to understand why. Between his career earnings and cushy endorsement deals with Ralph Lauren and Mizuno, Donald has become a very wealthy man for a player with just four unremarkable victories on his résumé.’’
Ouch. That seems a bit harsh, no? Donald doesn’t set the purses or make the rules; all he can do is play by them. A better debate might be if the hotshot from
“To have something named after me, that’s kind of cool,’’ Donald said, tongue-in-cheek. “It was annoying because it was written by someone I’ve never met who doesn’t know what my work ethic is like and what my goals are and how motivated I am. Everyone around me knows that story really didn’t show anywhere close to the true picture of what Luke Donald is. I know how hard I work and how hard I want it.’’
Two examples: Donald last month skipped a lucrative tournament he has historically done well in, the Scottish Open, to prepare for the British Open. He also could point to his 5-1-1 record in the Ryder Cup, the biennial for-pride get-together that offers participants no monetary reward.
Etc.
