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Yang Yong-eun earns high praise from Greg Norman

Australian legend and two-time Major winner, Greg Norman, had heaps of praise for newly crowned US PGA Championship winner, Yang Yong-eun, after the Korean battled his way into Team International following his Major victory at Hazeltine on Sunday.

Norman, the captain of Team International for the President's Cup, was delighted with Yang's victory that saw him defeat world number one Tiger Woods by three strokes to emerge as the first Asian to win a Major title.

"He is obviously showing the fact that he is not intimidated by the number one player in the world. Watching the golf on the last day was very, very impressive with the way he held his composure and the shots he made under very tough conditions and from a pressure aspect," said the 54-year-old.

Yang was in 36th place on Team International's rankings before his victory catapulted him to ninth placing for an automatic selection on the team. Norman is confident the two-time Asian Tour winner will play an integral role at the President's Cup this October.

"When Yang won at The Honda Classic, it was a tough golf course. The playing conditions were also hard conditions but he played well. He is the type of guy who if he went up against Tiger Woods, that would be great. I was just happy he worked his way on to the team and his performance coming up there in San Francisco is going to be equal to the performance he put in at the PGA, I'm pretty sure of that," said Norman.

Yang played regularly on the Asian Tour from 1999 to 2003 before following the footsteps of his compatriot and Asian Tour honorary member, K.J. Choi, to the PGA Tour in 2007.

The Korean's victory marked a great achievement for Korea and Asia and with many Asian golfers breaking through the ranks, Norman believes, Asia will produce more talented golfers in years to come.

"I see the extension of the game of golf in places like India, South Korea, China, Thailand and Vietnam. Matter of fact, China is a country that is growing. There'll be more golfers in China by the year 2020 than there will be in the United States. So what does that tell you? That tells you that China will be a dominating force in the game of golf in the next 20 years or 20 years from now," said the Australian.

"I expected this 10, 15 years ago when I saw what was happening to the game of golf from a business development standpoint on a global basis, and this is the product of it. You're seeing great players like Thongchai Jaidee coming out of Thailand, Yang stepping up and Ryo Ishikawa coming out of Japan and not forgetting Jeev Milkha Singh of India," added Norman.

August 19, 2009