Jeev finishes tied 67th at PGA Championships
By IANSMonday, August 17, 2009
HAZELTINE - Indian golfer Jeev Milkha Singh slipped down the leaderboard with a disappointing six-over 78 and to a lowly 67th place, but South Korean star Y.E. Yang upstaged Tiger Woods to become the first Asian to win a Major, when he grabbed the 91st PGA Championships.
Jeev, who had eight bogeys and one double against four birdies, finished at 11-over 299 here Sunday. His score was same as British Open champion Stewart Cink (81) and Phil Mickelson (76) and Rory Sabbatini, who is in contention with Jeev for a place in President’s Cup.
It was a roller-coaster of a day with just five pars, three birdies, eight bogeys and one double bogey as Jeev never did manage to settle down.
Meanwhile Yang, who was tied with defending champion Padraig Harrington going into the final round and two shots behind Tiger Woods, scripted an amazing story with a brilliant final round of 70 that was five shots better than the World No. 1.
Woods had never before lost in a Major when going into the final round with the lead. But Yang, who had won the 2007 HSBC Champions ahead of Tiger in Shanghai, played superbly to finish at eight-under 280.
Yang, who had to go to the PGA Tour Qualifying School at the start of the season, got another bonus. He leapfrogged into top-10 of the President’s Cup standings and made the team automatically.
The closest Asian-born players had come to winning the Majors was when ‘Mr. Lu’ - Liang-Huan Lu of Taiwan - finished one shot behind Lee Trevino at the 1971 British Open, and then T.C. Chen’s two-chip error cost him a chance at the 1985 U.S. Open, where he was runner-up to Andy North.
Earlier Harrington lost his chance of making a bid with a quintuple bogey (+5) on the par-3 eighth hole. There ended his chances and he finished the day at 78 and in tied
tenth place at even par 288.
Yang also became the first Asian born player to win a major championship and it also marked the first time since the Official World Golf Rankings began in 1986, players outside the top 30 have won four straight majors — Stewart Cink (33), Lucas Glover (71), Angel Cabrera (69) and Yang (110).
