Yang Wins the Battle Within, PGA Championship

 [Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Image]

He's human, or, at the very least we now know there's blood running through his veins. Up until Sunday, Tiger Woods has donned a persona that defies reason and physics; more machine than human. Too many times we've heard, "There is no way Tiger gets this close," or "He simply can't make this putt," only to have thousands of patrons loose their minds when they see the ball disappear in the cup. And until about 4 P.M. eastern standard time it looked like business as usual. After all, it was Sunday at a major; time for the craftsman to start etching Woods name on the Wanamaker so he can get home to his kids and enjoy the back-nine from the comforts of his couch. 

Oh yeah, his playing partner for the final round and the years' final major was a man named Y.E. Yang.  Yang, with a world golf ranking of 110th previous best finish at a major was a tie for 30th at the 2007 Masters. No matter how things played out on Sunday Yang could be proud of the fact that he could be added to the long list of just about everyone who's ever played with Tiger during the final round of a major only to implode (hey, the list has some pretty solid names on it). 

Only Yang didn't get the memo that Sunday's mean red shirts and coy smiles. 

With a calmness and a swing built for consistency Yang made shot after shot like he was playing a twilight round at his home course. And going into the 17th at Hazeltine with a one shot lead over Tiger you half expected Yang to wake up and realize the stage he was sharing. Instead it was Tiger who faltered; airmailing the par 3's green, leaving him a very difficult chip which he could only get to about 10 feet. And then it happened; Yang woke up and left his birdie putt 8 feet short. You could hear Tiger's wheels churning, all he needed was an opening, he was going to save par and go into the final hole tied. Nope. They would both bogey, and now Tiger would have to rip Yang's heart out on 18 like he had done countless times before to many of todays greatest players. 

Dressed in all white Yang walked up to his perfect drive in the middle of the fairway while Tiger stood analyzing his shot twenty yards ahead. What would happen next is sure to go down as one of the greatest shots in golf history. With a 3-iron hybrid from 206 yards Yang played a hook, clearing trees by a few feet, nearly jarring the shot only to leave him with a five-foot putt for birdie. There was nothing left for Tiger to do, no magical shot would change the outcome, no superhuman putt would take two shots off his scorecard. Woods had been beaten for the first time in his career after leading after 54 holes, and his expression told the entire story, he was at a loss. His face was somewhere between bewilderment and sadness. 

So what now? What does this mean for golf and it's king? Well, you could say that Woods has allowed other golfers to breakthrough that once impenetrable wall that is being paired with Woods in a final round. You could even say that maybe he's on his way back down to earth after a 15-year ride. Or, you can say, that for the first time someone played to beat Woods and the course, instead of simply playing "their best." Because, let's be honest here, on any given sunday Woods at 95% can beat any golf course or player in the world. But Yang decided, albeit quietly, and in Korean, that golf isn't a game you play against someone, instead the game is played entirely inside yourself, and it doesn't hurt to get Tiger on a day when he's at 90%.