Y.E. Yang

South Korea's Y.E. Yang captured the golf world's attention when he faced down Tiger Woods in the final round of this year's PGA Championship and came away with the victory. It was not, however, the first time Yang had shown he had the right stuff against the world's best golfer. In 2006, he won the HSBC Champions Tournament (a co-sanctioned event with the European Tour) by two strokes over Woods. His victory in the PGA Championship -- the first time that Woods had failed to win a major after holding at least a share of the lead at the end of 54 holes -- while dramatic, wasn't a fluke by any stretch of the imagination. Earlier in the year, Yang won The Honda Classic for his first TOUR title, making him only the second Korean to win a TOUR event (K.J. Choi was the first). Still, his PGA Championship victory was the first win in a major championship for a male player born in Asia, surpassing the runners-up finishes achieved by Lu Liang-Huan in the 1971 British Open, Isao Aoki in the 1980 U.S. Open and T.C. Chen in the 1985 U.S. Open. The previous best finish by a Korean was Choi's third place in the 2004 Masters Tournament.

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