Yang had his laptop open, showing Montecinos a house he was looking at in the upscale Southlake district of Dallas. They had been through Q school together, Montecinos coaching Yang through a careerchanging 108th hole on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course. Yang was at 20 under par but thought he had a two-shot cushion. “Eighteen [under] OK?” Yang asked, figuring he could miss his six-footer for bogey and still get his card. “No,” said Montecinos, and Yang made the putt for a round of 66 to secure his card—right on the number.

Two months later, Yang and instructor Brian Mogg came up with a drill that put Yang’s downswing in sync and led to a T-22 finish at Pebble. “I held a club on the left side of his head to prevent it from sliding forward to start the downswing,” says Mogg. “His arms and club would stay tighter to his body and get more from the inside so his turn could be in control at impact.”

Yang knew it was the beginning of a big year. Turning to Montecinos, he engaged in his own Cash for Clunkers incentive program.

“How much you owe on car?” Yang asked, and Montecinos told him 10 grand.

“How much you owe on house?” Yang asked, and Montecinos told him about US$150,000. At 5-foot-9, 195 pounds, Yang had built his body in the gym, and he did two air pushups in the front seat. “When Yang make US$2 million,” he said to Montecinos, “I pay.”

Two weeks later, Mogg visited Yang before the Honda Classic and remembers thinking, This guy is in command of his game. Ranked 460th in the world, Yang two-putted from 50 feet on the 72nd hole to beat John Rollins. “See?” Yang told Montecinos. “I told you.”

Winning a tour event in March and beating Tiger in the year’s final major, paired with the No. 1 player on a Sunday when he’s holding the lead, is like doing a pushup with a 200-pound plate on your back. No problem for Yang, who had already taken down Woods to win the 2006 HSBC Champions in Shanghai. 

One stroke up on Woods on the 72nd hole at Hazeltine, Yang and Montecinos consulted on club selection from 210 yards. Montecinos remembered Padraig Harrington airmailing the closing hole Saturday, making bogey to fall out of the final pairing. They agreed on a 3-hybrid, and Yang took just enough off it with a cut to stick it within eight feet. Tiger missed his second straight green coming in, and Yang completed what The New York Times called “an Upset Heard Round the World.” He was the first Asian-born winner of a men’s major, and Montecinos’ mortgage was handled.

In the week after the historic victory, Yang tried to unwind at his new home in Southlake. He took the Honda Odyssey minivan won at PGA National to the indoor range that he’s building in the Koreatown section of Dallas. He loaded up his three boys, Hyeonwoo, 10; Isu, 8; and Kyungmin, now 4—who speak three languages and are so Americanised they go by

Tony, Kevin and Danny—and headed to the mall. Yang’s wife, Jessica, a Korean raised in South America, has helped bridge the cultural gap by making Montecinos a CD of the South Korean pop band The Wonder Girls.

It was hard to get this personality from the early accounts out of Hazeltine. The bullet points were right out of Wikipedia: Yang, 37, grew up on Jeju Island. His parents were farmers. He served in the military for 18 months and didn’t start playing golf until he was 19. Weight training had been his passion.

Mogg has already coached Yang into not trying to change. “Stay Y.E. Yang,” Mogg told him. Adds Montecinos: “He’s got a heart, and he’s not afraid to show it.”

Analysis by Brian Mogg