PGA champ is true rags-to-riches tale

JEJU, South Korea -- Baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball. Y.E. Yang played them all as a child.

Everything but golf, considered a sport of the elite, with green fees costing several hundred dollars a round.

So it wasn't until he was 19 that Yang, the son of vegetable farmers, picked up an iron at the country club where he took a low-paying job scooping up golf balls. Practicing late into the night after patrons had gone, he soon became good enough to turn pro.

His dad was not impressed.

"Golf is for rich people. Why are you trying to become a golfer? Please don't do it," Yang Han-joon recalled begging his son, the fourth of eight children.

Funny how things turn out.

The 37-year-old Yang, who was in PGA Tour qualifying school nine months ago, became the first Asian-born man to capture a major title with a series of spectacular shots on the back nine of Hazeltine.

Even more memorable was the guy he beat to win the PGA tournament -- Tiger Woods. It was the first time golf's No. 1 player lost a major while atop the leaderboard going into the final round.

Just like that, a player ranked No. 110 in the world became the pride of a golf-crazy nation, as well as the toast of a continent.

"Congratulations to Yang Yong-eun for being the first Asian to win the PGA!" read hastily made banners hanging at the Ora Country Club, on the resort island of Jeju, where Yang's family lives.

The island, famous for its waterfalls, volcanoes, seafood and sunshine, is a popular honeymoon spot and in recent years has become a luxury golf destination.

Yang's father admits trying to pressure his son to join him in the fields.

"I had no idea what golf was -- that's why I was opposed to golf," he said.

But Yang's mother, Ko Hee-soon, said Yang was always determined to leave their tough life behind.

"When we urged him to go into farming, he would say: 'I'm not going to live like my father,'" she said.