Top 100 TOUR Players to Watch in 2010: No. 9

text size

Dec. 24, 2009

MORE TOP 100 PLAYERS: BACK to Player No. 10 | FORWARD to Player No. 8 | Top 100 archive


Regular Season Rank	21
Playoff Rank	23
Bonus Money	210,000

Y.E. Yang has a tough act to follow in 2010 and he has only himself to blame. The 37-year-old Korean did the unthinkable when he denied Tiger Woods the PGA Championship when the world No. 1 took the lead into the final round - a position from which he had won 14 of 14 previous times. Yang trailed by two that Sunday at Hazeltine National but he came up with the clutch shots when he needed them. He chipped in for eagle at the 14th hole to take the lead and then threaded a 3-hybrid from behind a tree and over a greenside bunker to 12 feet for a final birdie at the 18th hole. Yang shot 70 to Woods' 75 that day and became the first Asian-born winner of a major championship. Maybe we should have seen it coming. After all, Yang beat Woods by two strokes at the 2006 HSBC Champions and he had picked up his first TOUR victory last spring when he closed with a 68 to beat John Rollins by one at The Honda Classic. Now what does he do for an encore?


Who would have believed it so far? Who knows what comes next. Y.E. Yang has an opportunity to be the most successful player from Asia to ever tee it up -- if he is not already.