Word: yanging
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...Yang discovered the game almost by accident. After high school, a friend had gotten him a job at a local driving range - a job he took because in addition to the pay, he was able to eat and sleep at the range. Yang had graduated from an agricultural high school, and when one of his former teachers, Kang Wan-ho, heard that his former student was working at a golf range, "I figured he was just taking care of the lawn," Kang says...
...Yang was doing much more than that. He started practicing on his own during the evenings, and the game took hold of him. Even after his father forced him to quit and take a higher-paying construction job, Yang's interest in golf persisted, and he would practice without his father's knowledge. ("Who knows," Han-joon says now with a laugh, "maybe if I had encouraged him, he wouldn't have played.) Incredibly, he effectively taught himself how to master the notoriously difficult sport on Jeju's double-decked driving ranges, not taking formal lessons until he turned...
...Some modest success followed in the form of a few victories, mainly on the Asian tour. But intriguingly, last weekend's USPGA wasn't the first time Yang had beaten Woods: he had done the same at the 2006 HSBC Open in Shanghai. Yang's father believes that was the critical stepping stone to the victory on Sunday. "He beat Tiger once. He knew he could beat Tiger again," Han-joon tells TIME. "But more importantly, he thought he had nothing to lose in a match against the world-famous Woods." (Watch a video of Tiger Woods playing Wii Golf...
...tasting glory in the majors before: Taiwan's Liang-Huan Lu finished one shot behind Lee Trevino at the 1971 British Open, and his fellow countryman T.C. Chen's infamous two-chip gaffe cost him dearly at the 1985 U.S. Open. And credit must clearly also be given - as Yang did on Sunday - to South Korean female golfer Se Ri Pak, who has won two majors...
...that this diminishes Yang's victory. When asked why he seems able to stand up to the game's greatest player when so many others fall flat, Yang joked Sunday that "I know Tiger isn't going to beat me up on the green. I just play cool and easy." But Yang also believes in his ability, saying that his success is no fluke. Going head to head against the mighty Woods is "something I sort of visualized quite a few times, playing with him in the final round of a major championship," Yang said after his earth-shattering victory...