Major winner Yang tees up NZ Open

Korea’s YE Yang, the first Asian-born male golfer to win a major, will play at the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open in Queenstown in March.

Yang, known as “The Tiger Killer” after his victory over Tiger Woods at the 2009 US PGA Championship, will compete at the Open at Millbrook Resort and The Hills on March 9-12.

Yang, who has had 11 victories as a professional over the past two decades, has amassed more than $15 million in prizemoney around the globe, having played on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the Japan Golf Tour and the Asian Tour.

His involvement in the 98th New Zealand Open brings his career full circle, after the Korean came to this country for several years to hone his skills before turning pro in 1996.

Yang is looking forward to his return to New Zealand, before he heads back to the European Tour for 2017, mixed in with some starts on the PGA Tour.

“It was a long time ago now but I spent a lot of time in New Zealand practising in Auckland, Christchurch, Taupo and other places. That was for almost four years and that was maybe 20 years ago.”

Also confirmed are two leading Kiwi professionals, Ryan Fox and Michael Hendry, both coming off their best 12 months in the game.

Fox, 29, has gained his full playing card for the European Tour after finishing fourth on the Challenge Tour which included victory in the Northern Ireland Open on his way to European earnings of $284,000.

Hendry has had a brilliant season on the Japan Golf Tour, sitting 11th on the rankings with earnings of $700,000 on the back of six top-10 finishes, including five in a row.

He bypassed the final three events to chase one of the two spots on the Australasian Order of Merit which he managed to achieve.

Fox and Hendry are keen to break the drought of Kiwis winning the New Zealand Open.

The last was Mahal Pearce, in 2003 at Middlemore.

It was a long time ago now but I spent a lot of time in New Zealand. YE Yang