Years after catching a Tiger, Y.E. Yang slays another Goliath to win Ascension Charity Classic

South Korea’s Y.E. Yang knows a little something about taking on giants. Fifteen years ago, just outside Minneapolis, Yang felled 54-hole leader Tiger Woods to capture the PGA Championship, his lone major title, at Hazeltine National. To that point, Woods never had surrendered a major championship lead after 54 holes, and he was viewed universally as bulletproof. The day served up one of the most shocking defeats in Woods’ storied career.

All these years later, on a postcard-perfect Sunday in St. Louis at the Ascension Charity Classic, Yang faced another tall challenge as he tried to land his first title on PGA TOUR Champions. In his 72nd Champions Tour start, Yang, 52, needed to turn back the circuit’s all-time victory leader, Bernhard Langer, in extra holes to collect that elusive first over-50 trophy.

Yang would do it by making a 14-footer for birdie on his first playoff hole, flipping the script on Langer after the German had done something similar to him on the same green just a few minutes earlier. Nobody ever said winning was supposed to be easy. Yang and Langer tied at 13-under 200 after 54 holes.

For Yang, winning in the manner that he did, clipping a World Golf Hall of Fame member and the all-time Champions Tour victory holder with some big shots down the stretch, made the victory even more memorable – even for a tested and tough competitor who has captured trophies around the globe.

“PGA ... long time ago,” Yang, smiling, told Golf Channel reporter John Cook after sinking the title-winning putt at Norwood Hills, built more than a century ago. “But Champions? Just third year. It’s good. ... Today I think was a special, special day.”

It was, and much of Sunday’s drama was reserved for the day’s latest hours, which made for a gripping finish.

The ever-impressive Langer turned 67 on Aug. 27 and already owns 46 victories on PGA TOUR Champions. Sunday, he shot 7-under 64 – tying the day’s low round – to catch Yang, rolling in a clutch 13-foot birdie putt on No. 18 in regulation to force extra holes. In overtime, Langer faced another birdie putt from similar distance on nearly his same line after reaching the putting surface with a searing hybrid from a fairway bunker 190 yards out.

Langer putted first, with a chance to keep the pressure on Yang, but his birdie attempt scaled the hill and missed the cup on the high side.

Yang, just inside Langer’s ball in two, then had his chance, and he did not miss. The opportunity simply was too good. It marked the second time in the four-year history of the Ascension that extra holes were needed to identify a winner. (David Toms defeated Dicky Pride in a playoff in the inaugural edition.) With his victory, Yang earned $315,000 and moved to sixth in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup standings.

Langer's official license is the only document that would prove to anyone that the man is 67. He has made a surprisingly speedy recovery from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon that caused him to miss months of play at the outset of the season. Sunday’s result marked his sixth finish of T8 or better since returning to the circuit in Houston in early May. (Langer still has trouble walking, and he takes a cart in competition.) Langer has had a solid campaign, but hasn’t won this season, something he has done each season he has played the Champions Tour. With Langer, that lingers under the heading, “Difficult to Swallow.”

Langer did leave St. Louis with the solace of a clutch performance to end regulation. On his penultimate hole, though he found the fairway with his tee shot, Langer’s ball collected mud, and his second shot on the par 4 careened beneath greenside grandstands. After getting free relief, Langer managed a quality pitch from dense rough and then found the bottom of the cup with a par putt he had to have. Without the par, a birdie at the last would have left him one shot short.

“Yeah, played well,” Langer said. “I had another birdie chance in the playoff and I missed. He (Yang) made. You know, he played great golf. Stewart Cink had a chance, too. It was a great match all day long.”

Said Yang, "Bernhard is so strong."

Cink was trying to win for the second time in 14 days, began the round tied with Yang, and had a one-shot lead with two holes to play. He sprayed a tee shot right at 17, left an approach struck up and over trees short and left of the putting surface, and could not save his par. Cink’s uphill 10-footer cruelly circled the hole and spun out.

Meanwhile, Yang, sharp with his irons, had hit a brilliant approach with a pitching wedge to 3 feet, and the ensuing birdie – one of four in his final round, accompanying a 12-foot eagle at the eighth – meant a two-shot swing and delivered the lead at 13 under.

Cink made a scrambling par at the 54th hole to finish one shot out of the playoff. He shot a closing 67 but was undone by three bogeys on his card, including a costly one on 17. He did make seven birdies in his round, one a chip-in that kept momentum on his side after missing the green at the par-3 seventh.

Aussie Richard Green, a left-hander who continues to knock hard on the door to land his first PGA TOUR Champions win, became a man of intrigue early on Sunday, making birdies at his first six holes to climb into contention. He went out in 29 and shared the lead with four others briefly, but he could not maintain his attack. An approach at the par-4 14th caught a tree and led to a triple bogey, and Green would tie for eighth.

Shane Bertsch (64) and Justin Leonard (67) tied for fourth, one shot ahead of Chris DiMarco (66), who finished with 66. Steve Stricker tuned up for his run at a three-peat at next week’s Sanford International in North Dakota by shooting 66, tying for 15th alongside last year’s Ascension champion, Steve Flesch (68). Jay Haas, a native of St. Louis, finished his week by shooting 70 on Sunday, matching his age. Two days earlier, Haas shot 68.

Next September, the St. Louis stop will welcome a new title sponsor, with Stifel Financial Corp. coming on board. The Stifel Charity Classic presented by Compliance Solutions will be played Sept. 5-7 at Norwood Hills, extending a run of professional golf in St. Louis that dates to the 1940s.

Things to know

• Y.E. Yang wins his first PGA TOUR Champions title in his 72nd start and moves to No. 6 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings
• World Golf Hall of Fame member Bernhard Langer shoots or betters his age for the 16th and 17th times on the weekend (67-64)
• Second playoff at this event (2021) and third on Tour this season
• Richard Green equals the most consecutive birdies this season (Nos. 1-6)
• Defending champion Steve Flesch finishes T15 at 5-under
• The Ascension Charity Classic, contested for the fourth time at Norwood Hills Country Club, will be renamed the Stifel Charity Classic presented by Compliance Solutions in 2025 and continue at the same venue

Y.E. Yang/65-69-66—200 (-13)

• South Korean wins his first PGA TOUR Champions title in his 72nd start; owns two runner-up results (2022 Ascension Charity Classic, 2024 Kaulig Companies Championship)
• Converts a second-round lead/co-lead for the first time in his career on PGA TOUR Champions; was 0-for-3 in converting previous second-round leads/co-leads into victories, including the 2023 Ascension Charity Classic
• Fourth first-time winner this season and second in as many starts (Ricardo Gonzalez, Richard Bland, Stewart Cink)
• One of 10 international winners this season and second from South Korea (K.J. Choi); 16 of 21 events on PGA TOUR Champions have been won by international players this season
• Both his PGA TOUR victories came in 2009 – The Honda Classic and the PGA Championship, where he defeated Tiger Woods by three strokes
• Has shot 13-under 200 in each of his three appearances at the Ascension Charity Classic and has never finished outside the top three (2nd/2022, T3/2023, Won/2024); 39-under for nine rounds at Norwood Hills Country Club: 68-66-66-64-66-70-65-69-66

Additional notes

• World Golf Hall of Fame member Bernhard Langer (P2/-13) is now 7-10 in playoffs on PGA TOUR Champions; 67-year-old posts 67-64 on the weekend, the 16th and 17th time in his career to shoot or better his age; was seeking his first win this season with his most recent victory coming at the 2023 U.S. Senior Open Championship to become the all-time wins leader (46).
• Second-round co-leader Stewart Cink (3rd/-12) reached 13-under and the solo lead with a birdie at No. 15 but made a bogey at No. 17, while Yang made birdie for a two-stroke swing; was seeking his second win on PGA TOUR Champions after capturing The Ally Challenge in his most recent start 14 days ago.
• Shane Bertsch (T4/-9) posts a final-round 64 to record his best finish since the 2021 Principal Charity Classic (T6).
• Ascension ambassador Justin Leonard (T4/-9), seeking his first title on PGA TOUR Champions in his 39th start, was 10-under on the front nine and 1-over on the back nine this week; lone runner-up result among seven top-10s on Tour was a playoff loss to Thongchai Jaidee at the 2024 Pure Insurance Championship.
• Chris DiMarco (T6/-8) makes two bogeys for the week (both in round two), the fewest in the field.
• With a closing nine of 5-under 30, PGA TOUR Champions rookie Cameron Percy (T6/-8) posts his third top-10 result in his 10th start (3rd/American Family Insurance Championship, T10/Rogers Charity Classic, T6/Ascension Charity Classic).
• Richard Green (T8/-7) makes eight birdies and a triple-bogey 7 (No. 14) en route to a final-round 5-under 66; six consecutive birdies (Nos. 1-6) equals the best consecutive birdie streak on PGA TOUR Champions this season; 7-under 29 marks the second-lowest nine-hole score on Tour this season and equals the best nine-hole score of the season, in relation to par.
• Making his third start this season, and first since the Chubb Classic in February after undergoing neck surgery, Harrison Frazar (T8/-7) notches his seventh career top-10 finish.
• Monday qualifier and former University of Missouri golfer Jason Schultz finishes T23 (-3) in his fourth PGA TOUR Champions start, while St. Louis, Missouri natives Jay Haas and Jay Delsing were T41 (-1) and 70th (+8), respectively.
• Fred Funk withdrew during the final round.