Y.E. Yang’s victory in the PGA Championship may be being hailed in South Korea as a superstar but bookmakers around the world were also lauding him as a hero last night.
His final round overhaul of Tiger Woods saved them a huge payout which had looked inevitable when Woods led by four strokes at the half way stage; the world no 1 had until then led eight Majors at half way and gone on to win them all.
Woods was a well backed 2/1 favorite at the outset with Y.E. Yang an unconsidered 200/1 chance. Yang traded at 999/1 on betting exchange Betfair at one stage in the tournament.
Only Irish bookies Paddy Power were regretting his victory; they had already declared Woods the winner at the half way point and paid out $2 million to their clients.
One leading bookmaker said: “That was an absolutely amazing result for us. Our Woods payout was in excess of $1.8 million and we only had six backers of Yang before the event started. We did hedge some of our position in running so we’ve not kept the lot but it really has been a dream result for us.”
Yang was the world no 110 prior to his PGA win and had only ever won once in America previously. He beat Woods by three strokes with a two under round of 70, versus Woods’ 75.
Paddy Power, the spokesman for Paddy Power bookmakers, who have made their reputation by paying out early on ‘certainties’, said: “It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been our best ever golf result into our worst. 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!”
England’s Lee Westwood and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy took joint third place with America’s Lucas Glover finishing fifth.
Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison said: “Mcllroy and Westwood in the places was bad news for all bookies. But we never complain about seeing Tiger Woods beaten. His 14 major wins have cost us millions and Young-Eun has finally given us our revenge.”
Yang completed a great set of Majors for bookmakers as unfacied outsiders took all four this season; Angel Cabrera traded at 169-1 in the Masters, Lucas Glover was on offer at 409-1 in the US Open and Stewart Cink touched 319-1 in the Open Championship at Turnberry.
tags: betting, paddy power, pga, tiger woods, ye yang
