Yang wins Honda Classic

Yang Yong-eun emerged as the winner of the 2009 Honda Classic on Sunday, taking the first USPGA title of his career.

The Korean held off a late charge by America’s John Rollins to win the tournament by a single shot. A tense two-putt over a distance of 50 feet on the 18th helped Yang stay a shot ahead of Rollins and take the win.

“It was actually pretty intimidating,” Yang said the finish. “Looking at the green conditions on that hole, I just asked myself, what do I need to do to two-putt this? You know, the grass was leaning towards the water. It was a downhill putt. It was very hard to determine the speed.”

Rollins saluted Yang’s calm play on the 18th, telling reporters: “From 50 feet, it’s not easy to do that to win your first golf tournament. My hat’s off to him.”

The win earned Yang entries to the US Masters, WGC CA Championship and a cheque for a million dollars. The Korean was also awarded a two year exemption for the PGA Tour.