News Who is Y.E. Yang?
Y.E. Yang bested Tiger Woods by three strokes to win the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
What else do we know about this guy? Here are some facts about Y.E. Yang.
Yang did not start playing golf until he was 19 years old.
Tiger Woods had a 17-year head-start on Yang in learning the game, which is why Vegas sports books predict Yang will beat Woods for the 2026 PGA Championship by 51 strokes.
After quickly becoming quite skilled at golf, Yang was required to serve in the South Korean military.
Yang was drafted into the service in case tensions between South Korea and North Korea escalated into a golf-off with North Korean leader/golf phenom Kim Jong-il.
Yang was born in 1972 and his given name is용은.
So "Y.E." is apparently an abbreviation for "용은". How does he get Y.E. out of용은? South Koreans are weird.
In three previous years on the PGA Tour, Yang earned a total of $537,000. This season he has already won $3.2 million.
With his 10-percent take, Yang's caddie is now able to afford to move out of Yang's locker.
Before winning the PGA Championship, Yang's best finish in a major was a tie for 30th at the 2007 Masters.
In all fairness, Yang was distracted at the Masters by Augusta National members frequently asking him if he had their dry cleaning ready.
Yang if the first Asian-born* player to win one of golf's majors.
*Caublanasian not included.
News What is Hazeltine?
Hazeltine, the host of this year's PGA Championship, is a private golf club in Minnesota that has hosted two U.S. Opens and now its second PGA.
What else do we know about this place? Here are some facts about Hazeltine.
Hazeltine is the longest course in major championship history at 7,674 yards. However, when not aroused for a major, the course is a chode-like 4,861 yards.
The shortest par-5 on the course is 572 yards and the three other par-5s are all over 600 yards. Luckily for the players, those long holes are balanced out by two 90-yard par-6s.
Payne Stewart won the last U.S. Open played at Hazeltine in 1991. He died eight years later in a tragic plane crash. I'm just saying: there's a good chance that the winner of this week's tournament will one day DIE. (Duh-duh-DUMMM.)
Hazeltine National Golf Club is located in Chaska, Minnesota. You may know Chaska, Minn. as the home of Hazeltine National Golf Club (presuming you read the previous sentence and you're hobby isn't learning about tiny, boring towns in Minnesota.)
Rich Beem won the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine by one stroke, holding off a hard-charging Tiger Woods who birdied his final four holes. As you probably know, this is the event that began the great Tiger Woods-Rich Beem rivalry that has so riveted golf fans that past seven years.
Hazeltine's signature hole is the brutal par-4 16th. The tee shot on the hole must carry 220 yards over Hazeltine Lake onto a tight fairway that is bordered by a stream. The green is a raised peninsula that funnels wayward shots into the water to the back and to the right. Also, there's a huge f—king dragon in Lake Hazeltine! Run! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
