Yang leaves Woods in his wake

Last updated at 15:38 13 November 2006

Little-known Korean Yang Yong-eun outshone the star names of Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen and Michael Campbell to win the HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.

Yang pocketed the £441,000 prize money as he shot from seemingly nowhere to card a three-under-par 69 for an impressive 14-under 274 total in the first event of the 2007 European Tour schedule.

It condemned world number one Woods to another second-place finish at the Sheshan International Golf Club - he finished three shots behind David Howell last year.

In truth, the 2006 Open champion and US PGA winner will look to his own mixed form as the reason he was unable to add another victory to his expansive collection.

But he refused to take anything away from Yang, who was allowed the luxury of a one-over 37 on the back nine on his way to a third success of the year but by far his biggest of his career.

Woods said: "I had my chances and Saturday (when he shot a one-over 72) was the day that if I could have hung in there, I could have made a challenge for the tournament.

"But I was too far back and Yang just went on and played some great holes. He just went off and it was basically out of reach and I was just trying to get as many birdies as I could and maybe get second."

For the first two days, the tournament was led by another Asian, India's Jyoti Randhawa, who had a poor weekend to slide down the leaderboard to finish tied at ninth.

But, with four Asians making up the final top 20 Woods believes that golf has become less exclusive, with players from all over the world capable of winning the top events.

"Golf has changed," he added. "It has evolved and become more international. There is more depth now.

"Look at every field now, there are guys that can win. That wasn't the case 15-20 years ago but now that has changed.

"The guys are better mentally, the equipment certainly helps and the guys overall are bigger, stronger and hit the ball further."

The victory left Yang, who now goes to the top of the European Order of Merit, lost for words.

"I don't know why I am sitting here to be honest. It just feels so new right now," he said.

"This is such a big thing that is happening to me right now, it is such a big moment in my life, that it is really hard to explain in words how I feel right now."

Goosen, meanwhile, was disappointed with his final round showing as he let slip the overnight lead to finish one over for his round and 11-under for the tournament.

He said: "On the back nine, I hit a couple of bad shots off the tee and didn't really give myself any birdie chances.

"I struggled with my swing out there so I didn't hit it as good as I would have liked to have hit it.

"Yang played very well, consistent. He made a good run of birdies. I hit a lot of good putts but I just didn't make things.

"At that stage he was only one shot ahead. I had a bad flyer out of the rough on 10 that went 20, 30 yards over the green and that sort of stopped the momentum there for me.

"From there on, I struggled to get it near the pin and couldn't make a putt to save my life.

"He (Yang) is a good player, he proved himself winning over here. It is his first win on the European Tour, so we'll be seeing more of him next year."

Campbell, the 2005 US Open champion, made a drastic improvement on his third round display as he was the third person to hit a course-record 64 in the event - after Henrik Stenson and Woods.

Marc Warren rounded off an excellent tournament by finishing fifth with a one-under-par 71 to lift him to 10 under, while HSBC World Match Play champion Paul Casey also shot a 71 to finish eight under alongside Padraig Harrington.

Colin Montgomerie carded his best round of the tournament, a five-under-par 67 to finish at six under, while Howell relinquished his title in disappointing form as he failed to have one good round over the four days and was especially poor at the weekend, with two 76s adding up to a nine-over total.