By Ben James Aug 17, 2009, 2:52 GMT
Hazeltine, Minnesota - Y.E. Yang is not your average golfer.
The 37-year-old, who grew up on Jeju-do, Korea, became the first Asian player ever to win a Major on Sunday when he upstaged world No 1 Tiger Woods to win the US PGA Championship.
But when he was 19, he had never even lifted a golf club. Instead, he wanted to be a body-builder.
'On the PGA Tour website they said I was a body builder, but I wasn't actually a body builder - I was an aspiring body builder,' he said soon after his three-shot triumph at Hazeltine.
'My biggest dream was to actually own a gym. That was about it. That's when I was 17 and 18. I went to the gym a lot. I liked it. But I tore my (anterior cruciate ligament) in my knee and the dream faded.
'Then one of my friends introduced me to a small driving range in our town where we could eat and sleep there as well. I went over there and the driving range was probably about 60 yards tops, hitting off the mat into nets.
'The first grip I ever had was a baseball grip and just whacking it into the net. It just felt fun. That's how it all started.'
At 19, Yang's first hero was Nick Faldo, the Briton who won three Masters and three British Opens.
Yang was clearly a natural. It took him only three years to break par for the first time
'I wasn't really trying to become a PGA tour professional,' he said. 'I was trying to work as a club pro or just work as an instructor at a local driving range to just make both ends meet.
'I started enjoying it and onwards and onwards. Then I found out there were professional tournaments in Korea and on to Japan and Asia and finally in America. So my life has been sort of very slow, actually. I've always tried to take it a step at a time.'
While Yang may have been largely unknown to American audiences, he has now won 10 tournaments worldwide. In 2006, he came from behind to win the HSBC Championships in Shanghai, playing a couple of groups in front of Woods.
His adventurous style makes him a crowd-pleaser and he refused to be intimidated by playing with the world No 1.
'I guess the fearlessness comes from the fact that I know I'm doing my dream job,' he said. 'Every day I'm living my dream. I also have this mentality where I try my best and leave no regrets. If it doesn't work out, then that's that. I leave no regrets. So I guess if I do have courage, that's where it comes from.'
Yang said he hoped his triumph would continue the boom that began in Korea more than a decade ago.
'I think it was back in 1996 with the women's golf where Se Ri Pak won the US Open, that really created a huge boom in Korea, where everybody started picking up clubs instead of tennis rackets and baseball bats,' he said.
'And with KJ Choi winning his first (PGA Tour) tournament, that also increased the popularity of golf.
'I hope this win would be if not as significant, something quite parallel to an impact both to golf in Korea as well as golf in Asia so that all the young golfers, Korean and Asian, would probably build their dreams and expand their horizons a bit with this win.'
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