There are a couple of near certainties in the world – paying taxes, dying, and that Tiger Woods closes out major championships when he is leading after 54 holes. For the record, I am a huge Tiger Woods fan. He is the reason why I watched most of the final round of the PGA Championship yesterday. However, I am happy that Y.E. Yang beat Tiger to become the first Asian golfer to win a major championship because he earned it.
Tiger actually looked tense yesterday. He two-putted on just about every hole yesterday and he was clearly unnerved by Yang’s coolness under pressure. The telling moment was at the 14th when Yang made an unbelievable chip for an eagle. Tiger would birdie the hole but the momentum had switched for the final time.
The reason why Yang didn’t melt under the pressure is that he kept the match in proper perspective, plus it didn’t hurt that Yang is one of the few people who has beaten Tiger heads-up at the HSBC Champions in China in 2006. “It’s not like you’re in an octagon where you’re fighting against Tiger and he’s going to bite you, or swing at you with his 9-iron,” Yang said through an interpreter. “The worst that I could do was just lose to Tiger. So I really had nothing much at stake.”
With Tiger’s loss yesterday, is there hope that death and taxes might be losing their grip as certainties of life in America? Death is still a constant although we will not know when it will come for us. As far as taxes are concerned, Tiger already knows and Yang will find out that the better we play in life… the more we pay in taxes.
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.