Yang Yong-eun beats Tiger Woods

I normally skip over the Sports news section of the newspaper very quickly but this story caught my eye. Yang Yong-eun a South Korean golfer beat Tiger Woods in Shanghai to win the HSBC Champions tournament on Sunday. Well done that lad, $833,000 better off too. I particularly liked his comment :

"It's just such a big moment in my life right now I can't explain it in words," said an overjoyed Yang. "Now that I've won, I want to play a lot of tournaments overseas— in Europe, the United States and Japan. I want to compete against the best in the world, now this gives me the chance."

Here's a picture of him courtesy of Yahoo / AP:



For a country that is so obsessed with golf it is a surprise there are not more internationally known golfers, but then as I have no interest in golf, maybe there are.

Having written that, and now done the research, it seems Korean lady golfers are doing very well indeed: Se Ri Pak, when she was 21 in 1998, won both the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Championship and the Women's U.S. Open (she was the youngest player ever to do). More details on her and her friends on the SeoulSisters website.

There are few golf courses in this country but plenty of huge driving ranges, the green netting is visible from a long way away and all the gyms have special golf rooms where you can practice as well. I'm sure there is a Korean equivalent of CaddyChicks too.