SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – Yang Yong-eun is wary of a Tiger Woods backlash after beating the world number one into second place to win the PGA Championship in August and become Asia’s first major winner.
Yang’s victory at Hazeltine followed a similar win three years earlier at the HSBC Champions and the South Korean and Woods have both returned to Shanghai this week for the fifth version of the $7 million tournament.
“With Tiger, I don’t want to push my luck any further. I know that Tiger is at his peak condition right now. He’s been rested,” Yang told reporters at Asia’s first WGC event yesterday.
“I’ve been lucky once and I don’t want to push my luck. I’m going to push myself as I always do and I’m going to be oblivious of all of the other players and just try to play my game.” Yang has been in great demand since his breakthrough victory at Hazeltine and said his frame of mind was very different to how he felt when he sprang from nowhere to beat Woods in 2006. “Now, there’s a little bit more pressure I guess,” added the 37-year-old.