2009: The Year of the Runner-Up

Y.E. Yang did the impossible Sunday afternoon in the final round of the PGA Championship: he beat Tiger Woods.

In golf's fourth and final major of the year, Yang went head-to-head with the greatest golfer that ever lived stole the lead from him in the final round of a major, a feat that no other golfer in history has been able to accomplish.

Heading into Sunday, Woods had won all 14 major championships in which he's had at least a share of the lead heading into the final round. Yang, with his steady and unflinching play all day, made sure that Tiger would not improve his streak to 15.

Yang deserved to win on Sunday. He played great, making eagle on the 14th hole and hitting his approach on 18 from 210 yards away over a tree to inside ten feet. He seemed immune to the pressure that comes with playing alongside Tiger Woods in the final round of a major.

With the win, Yang joins Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, and Stewart Cink in one of the most unique foursomes in golf history. All four players won a major in 2009, and all four tournaments will ultimately be remembered for who didn't win them.

For as great as Yang played on Sunday (his 2-under 70 tied him for the lowest round of the day), history will not remember the 2009 PGA Championship as the one that Y.E. Yang won, but as the one that Tiger Woods lost.

It's nothing against Yang. He makes for a great story. He didn't start playing golf until he was 19-years-old. He's the first male player from Asia to win a major championship. He seems like a genuinely good guy.

But that fact is, when Tiger Woods does something that's he's never done before, in this case relinquishing the 54-hole lead for the first time ever in a major, it becomes a bigger story than the actual winner of the tournament.

Maybe Yang should seek out Angel Cabrera for advice on how to deal with playing second fiddle despite winning one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world. After all, it was just four months ago when the biggest story at the final round of the Masters wasn't Cabrera winning on the second playoff hole, but the PGA tour's resident nice guy Kenny Perry completely choking away the green jacket with bogeys on 17 and 18 that forced the playoff with Cabrera and Chad Campbell.

Or maybe Yang can call Lucas Glover. Glover wasn't even the second biggest story at the U.S. Open this year. The rainy weather that all but eliminated half of the field from contention after the first round stole the show early in the event. Phil Mickelson and his army of followers at Bethpage was the second biggest story. David Duval trying to complete the biggest comeback in golf history ranks up there. Then, somewhere way down the line, comes the story of Lucas Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open champ.

But if Y.E. Yang truly wants to chat with someone who knows exactly how he feels right now, he need look no further than 2009 British Open Champ Stewart Cink. The 2009 Open at Turnberry ranks as the major whose winner will eventually get overlooked the most.

That's because 59-year-old Tom Watson stole the show, turning back the clock by about 30 years to when he edged out Jack Nicklaus in 1977 at the same course in "The Duel in the Sun." Thirty-two Years later, Watson had a putt on the 72 second hole that would have made him the oldest major champion ever, by a full 13 years.

Cink went on to outlast Watson in a playoff, but years from now, no one will remember who beat Tom Watson in 2009, just that Watson came about eight inches away from making major championship history.

Does that fact that Yang, Cabrera, Glover, or Cink weren't the biggest story of the week during their major victories lessen their accomplishment in any way? Absolutely not.

But sometimes that's just how sports works. As compelling as a great game may be, it will always be trumped by a great story.

Such was the case this year on the PGA tour.

It may not necessarily be fair for the winners to have to share their 15 minutes of glory with the runner-up, but I would be willing to bet that none of this year's four winners would trade back that victory for all the headlines in the world.

The headlines went away after a few days. The names of Y.E. Yang, Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, and Stewart Cink will be etched on their respective trophies from now to eternity.

That sounds like a pretty fair trade off to me.