98 - Golf Shorts - PGA Championship...

This week’s Golf Shorts is dominated by the recent PGA Championship event at Hazeltine. From the shock win to the foulmouthed rants, the philosophical outlook of a nearly man to the International Bright Young Thing tipped for greatness, from the Englishman quietly climbing the World Rankings to bookmaker that lost out big time there is plenty to talk about. Let’s start with the new lifestyle of the now rich and now famous Yang Yong-eun.

There are many perks to being a PGA Champion, the most obvious being the prize money and increased revenue from sponsors. With his win at Hazeltine the South Korean (below) picked up a tasty £820,000 bringing his season earnings to £1.95m. As the champion he will be in demand and it is estimated he could receive another £900,000 in appearance fees too. Not bad for a relatively unknown player who was 150/1 at the start of the tournament.

But it isn’t all about the Benjamin’s. As a Major winner he is exempt from qualification for five years, will receive complimentary first-class travel to events, be put up in the best hotels and will even have his own parking space! Yes, his own parking space! As the big cheese he will also benefit from more conveniently scheduled tee times, something that can have a positive impact on a golfer’s game apparently.

If Yang was the big winner there is little doubt that Tiger Woods was the biggest loser on the course that day. The most recognisable golfer on the planet had a comfortable lead going into the last round but a series of missed putts combined with some stunning shots from the South Korean meant that Woods lost by 3 shots. To add insult to injury Eldrick was caught on TV swearing after missing his par putt at the 17th, when he repeatedly shouted the word "f***". Naughty Mr. Woods.

Another epic fail came in the shape of Padraig Harrington who was a serious contender until he decided to play like seasoned muni hacker. The Irishman was going along quite nicely until the eighth hole when he eventually holed out for an impressive quintuple bogey that effectively ended a challenge that had looked so promising.

The likeable Dubliner was philosophical about his exploits at the eighth: “It was a difficult tee shot and it was obviously a difficult second shot after you hit it in the water and pulled it into the rough. I had been changing my chipping action a little, and I probably was more into what I was doing rather than trying to get the ball up-and-down, and I hit a bad shot. So these things happen.”

Things went better for young Rory McIlroy (below) as he recorded his best finish at a Major tournament. The 20-year-old with the comedy hair finished joint third with fellow Brit, Lee Westwood. While all around him struggled, McIlroy managed to sink birdies at the third, fourth, fifth and ninth to finish the round three under par. This was his best result, eclipsing the 10th-place finish at this year’s US Open.

Westwood’s reward for finishing 3rd was to move back into the top ten in the World Rankings: 1 Tiger Woods 14.24pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 7.96, 3 Paul Casey 6.58, 4 Kenny Perry 6.11, 5 Henrik Stenson 5.93, 6 Steve Stricker 5.85, 7 Sergio Garcia 5.68, 8 Geoff Ogilvy 5.49, 9 Lee Westwood 5.24, 10 Stewart Cink 5.10. In addition Westwood has also sneaked into fourth place in European Tour's 'Race To Dubai' money list.

And finally

Irish Bookmakers Paddy Power were left fuming after Woods snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at Hazeltine. Renowned for settling its bets early, they paid out to all backers of Woods after just 36 holes when the world number one was four shots clear at odds of 1/5. This slip up cost them a whopping £1.3m but Paddy Power are still quids in after Harrington’s charge faltered at the 8th.

"It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been our best ever golf result into our worst," the company said in a statement. "Paddy Power punters are obviously the big winners here and have made like bandits getting paid out on Tiger as a winner. Our only saving grace is that Harrington didn't do the business, thank God!"