Shanghai:  South Korean Yang Yong-Eun emerged from golfing obscurity by upstaging Tiger Woods and a host of the word's best players to win the five-million-dollar HSBC Champions tournament here Sunday.

Yang, a regular on the Japanese tour and ranked 77 in the world, carded a three-under 70 to finish at 14 under for the tournament, two strokes ahead of world number one Woods.

Yang's win, coming against a field boasting 10 of the world's top 20 ranked players, was the biggest of his career, earning him 833,000 dollars and the right to play on the European Tour in season 2007.

"This is such a big moment in my life. It's hard to explain how I'm feeling," the 34-year-old said, explaining he had not given himself a chance coming into the tournament of beating the likes of Woods.

"If someone would have told me I was going to win this week, I would have just laughed and said: 'you have got to be kidding me'," he said.

Woods, who started the day five shots behind overnight leader Retief Goosen, shot a five-under 67, but he said a 73 in the third round had left him with too much work to do.

"Yesterday was the day. If I could have hung in there, I could have been a challenge today but I was too far back and Yang just played some great holes," said Woods, who also finished second in Shanghai last year.

World number six Goosen carded four bogeys during a horror back nine of 39 that saw him finish with a one-over 73 and at 11 under for the tournament, in equal third position alongside New Zealand's Michael Campbell.

Yang, who started the day one behind Goosen, showed no signs of early nerves, with a birdie on the second hole.
Playing alongside Goosen and India's Jyoti Randhawa, he then made three birdies in a row from the sixth hole to overtake the South African and finish the front nine with a four-under 32.

At 16 under with three holes to play, Yang led the field by four strokes before nerves finally struck with two bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes.

But he held on, sinking an eight-foot putt for par on the 18th and celebrating by pumping his fists into the air with a huge smile on his face.

Aside from earning Yang the biggest payday of his career and a European Tour card, the win could see him jump inside the world's top 50 rankings.

If Yang maintains a top 50 ranking until the end of the year, he will gain direct entry into the 2007 US Masters and US PGA majors.

"Now I have won, I want to play a lot of tournaments overseas  in Europe, the United States and Japan," he said.
"I just want to compete with the best players in the world, and this win has given me the chance," he said.

Yang's win also thrust him out of the shadows of his more famous countryman, K.J Choi, who holds the honor of being the first Korean to win tournaments on both the US and European tours.

Woods said he knew nothing about Yang before this week, and neither did the American's playing partners on Sunday  Sweden's Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson.

"All three of us were talking (about him) going up to the last hole. We didn't know anything about him," Woods said.
Yang's win also continued a brilliant few weeks for Asian golf, following Indian Jeev Milka Singh's win on the European Tour's season-ending Volvo Masters and Choi's victory in the Chrysler Championship in the US.

Among the other big names to have played in Shanghai, defending champion David Howell of England finished tied for 47th at one over.

Ireland's Padraig Harrington, the 2006 European Order of Merit winner, England's Paul Casey and Karlsson tied for eighth at eight under.

The HSBC tournament marks the official start of the 2007 European Tour, and is co-sanctioned with the Asian, Australasian and South African tours.