SEOUL, South Korea: Yang Yong-eun's stunning win over Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship gave the burgeoning golf market in Asia something that no amount of money can buy: the region's first major champion.

Golfers and fans in Asia had access to some of the world's newest and most lush courses, the attention of global sponsors, broadcasters and administrators and a group of seven South Korean women who combined for 11 major titles, but Yang's come-from-behind win over Woods on Sunday was unprecedented in so many ways. Not least the impetus it gives the game across the far-flung Asian continent.

Woods had never lost in the 14 previous majors in which he'd taken a lead into the final round. But Yang was never overawed, giving Asians a homegrown men's champion to cheer for rather than rely on familial links with Woods, who has a Thai mother, and Fijian-born Vijay Singh, a major champion of Indian heritage.