I'll be honest: I didn't even bother to watch the final round of the 2009 PGA Tournament at Hazeltine. Tiger Woods was leading after 54 holes, and Tiger was 14-0 after leading going into the final round of a major. I figured the Wannamaker Trophy was on its way to Florida already.
Make that 14-1.
Because Y.E. Yang, a household name only in his native South Korea, beat Tiger in the most improbable upset in major championship history.
How did it happen? You can talk about Tiger missing putts and Yang draining them, about the 110th-ranked player going toe-to-toe with the world's greatest player. But the hidden answer came from Yang himself:
I've sort of visualized this quite a few times playing against the best player in the history of golf, playing with him in the final round in a major championship, always sort of dreamed about this," Yang said Sunday through an interpreter. "I've seen throughout Tiger's career that a lot of players have folded probably on the last day when playing with him.
"So when I was at home or at a tournament watching Tiger in the clubhouse, I'd usually try to visualize and try to bring up a mock strategy how to win, if I ever played against Tiger."
How Yang beat Woods is as stunningly simple as this: he believed he could do it.
Not that he WOULD win. Not that he SHOULD win. But that he COULD win.
"When the chance came, I sort of thought that, hey, I could always play a good round of golf and Tiger could always have a bad day," Yang said. "And I guess today was one of those days."
He wasn't describing one of those woo-woo visualization strategies so often touted these days where you picture a pile of money falling from the sky. Yang emotionally put himself in the situation before it happened, so that when it actually happened, it felt perfectly natural.
It's like Warren Beatty said in Heaven Can Wait, "Let's get to the Super Bowl, and when we get there, let's already have won."
That's a perfect example of how to experience something before it actually happens, something Tiger has honed to an art form. While no one may have stronger belief in himself than Tiger Woods, on this day at least, Y.E. Yang's unstoppable self-belief conquered the world's best.
Of course Yang had to actually perform when his time came. Winning in golf or life isn't a matter of just believing you can do it. You have to DO it.
But my favorite Yang line of all is this:
"I wasn't that nervous, honestly, because it's a game of golf. It's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against Tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you with his nine iron."
Gotta love that guy.
"90 percent of this game is mental. The other half is physical." - Yogi Berra
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Noah St. John is the author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness (HarperCollins) and founder of SuccessClinic.com , a success mastery company.
Visit http://MyCodebreaker.com for a free demonstration of how to install Unstoppable Self-Belief in a fraction of the time it took most champions to get there.
Follow Noah St. John on Twitter: www.twitter.com/noahstjohn
Tiger's won 5 times this year, unfortunately for him, none were "majors". At the end of the year, though, he'll still win the Fed Ex Cup, Player of the Year, have the low stroke average by over a stroke per round - which is just STUPID GOOD.
He isn't going to win them all. But Jack's 18 is still likely toast by the end of 2012.
It took some very nice bounces and good lies in the rough for Yang on the front nine, a couple of Tiger missed putts early, and the two best shots of Yang's entire golfing career -- the chip-in and the 3 hybrid on 18 -- to get it done.
As anyone who plays golfs knows, anytime you actually make a long chip-in -- his was 60 feet -- you're lucky. No question it was a superb shot.
It was the huge turning point. But Yang could hit that shot another 20 times and not make it again. Absolutely give him credit for a great shot. Lots of great shots don't go in the hole. But he also happened to hit lightning in a bottle. As many golfers have said, and it was true this time if it was ever true, often you have to be both lucky and good to win a major.
any relation to elaine st. john/ adele rogers st. john?
ambrose bierce said
Genius - To know without having learned; to draw just conclusions from unknown premises; to discern the soul of things.
This does not make for good viewing, we see these once in a lifetime competitors playing to the best of their ability for only a fraction of the tournament knowing that getting a little bit ahead is enough to stave of competition .
Maybe Woods will force himself to take as many risks as his buddies, sure he may lose a few more tournaments but the ones he wins will be displays of pure excellence. That's what we all want to see.
Or Orville Moody, one-time winner on the PGA tour, the US Open of 1969.
The fact that people didn't know who Yang was simply demonstrates how focused we are on the American and European tours. In other words, it's our ignorance, not the improbability, that is the story.
I hope the record of Nicklaus always stands
I cannot think of anyone other than Jack that deserves to be called The Greatest
what did tiger do that prevented yang from having a moment of glory? miss his last putt?
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faldo said earlier in the round something to the effect of "Tiger has been leading for three weeks straight - I think he's exhausted."
congrats to Yang for a well-played tourney.