On Golf: Yang passes Woods, wins PGA

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By Barker Davis

CHASKA, Minn.

There are those who will characterize the 91st PGA Championship as the fitting end to a major season on the blink. They will lump in the surprise winner of the Wanamaker Trophy with the year's other upset champions (Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink) and label this the Slam season of the dog.

They will say Hazeltine's bewildering result simply was the inevitable, absurd ending of the most ill-fated major season in history.

How else can anyone swallow the fact that Y.E. Yang, a player with just one PGA Tour victory (2009 Honda Classic) who had never made the cut at a major before, took down Tiger Woods, snapping his streak of 14 straight conversions from the 54-hole major pole.

Incredulity might be the prevailing sentiment, but so what?

This moment has been more than a decade in the making, and Yang's virtual no-profile does nothing to diminish his epic accomplishment.

"I know Tiger is one of the greatest players in the history of the game," Yang said through an interpreter after besting Woods by five strokes in the final round. "You have to respect him. I don't think he had a bad game, but I am glad he had an off-day."

Sure, Woods didn't come up with his customary closing brilliance Sunday, stumbling to a closing 75 at blustery Hazeltine. That score was just one better than his worst in the final round of a major (2004 U.S. Open) and by far his worst effort as a front-runner.

"I did everything I needed to do today except get the ball in the hole," Woods said after his bid for a 15th major title fell prey to a number of cup-grazing putts and 33 total whacks with the short stick. "I had a bad day on the greens at a bad time. That's the way it goes."