Feb 22, 2010

By Laury Livsey, PGA TOUR Staff

The Durham Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization had made its request, and Sarah Close, a PTO board member at the Southlake, Texas, school wasn’t sure what might arrive. She privately hoped the donation would be good, but she certainly wasn’t expecting this.

The PTO had approached PGA TOUR player Y.E. Yang about giving something to the school’s fundraising auction. After all, Yang lives in Southlake, and his children attend the school.

“I don’t think any of us anticipated how our simple request for an auction-item donation would play out. I think we would have been thrilled to have a signed set of golf balls,” Close said.

Yang did just a little better than that.

What is now up for bid until Saturday, Feb. 27 is a signed pin flag and a Le Coq Sportif polo shirt, complete with a Yang autograph.

Oh, and did we mention that it’s a 2009 PGA Championship pin flag and the exact shirt Yang wore when he won the tournament at Hazeltine Golf Club, marking the first time an Asian-born player has won a major championship?

“When we learned he was giving us his signed PGA Championship shirt along with the signed tournament [flag], we were all just in awe of his generosity,” Close adds. “That’s a gift that has tremendous emotional and historical value, not just to the golfing world at large, but to Mr. Yang personally, and to his family. To part with that for the sake of our school shows sincere support, and we cannot thank him enough.”

Funds generated from the auction will go to support school field trips and professional development for teachers, while also providing programs and materials for all students, among other initiatives.

Last August, Yang woke up Sunday morning in Chaska, Minn., two strokes behind 54-hole leader Tiger Woods at the season’s final major championship. Yang put on the white 100-percent cotton shirt with the orange buttons and the familiar Le Coq Sportif rooster logo and headed to the golf course. Eight hours later, a worldwide TV audience saw the former bodybuilder adjacent to the 18th hole hoisting his golf bag above his head in celebration after he shot a final-round 70, overtook Woods and rolled to a three-stroke victory to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

The significance of Yang’s win, an Asian winning a major championship while beating the world’s top-ranked player, immediately made everything—his hat, his glove, his clubs, and, certainly, his shirt—more significant if not valuable. Instead of taking the shirt and finding a spot in his personal trophy case, the native of Seoul, South Korea, put it aside until the school asked for some assistance. He then pulled out the black Sharpie.

“First of all,” Yang said, “it’s a school charity and a school where my kids attend. The shirt has some meaning to me. But I think if it has meaning to me, it will be the much more valuable to whomever is going to buy it.”

So last weekend, the shirt and the flag went up for bid.

Dana Bucknam expresses similar amazement at Yang’s magnanimous gesture. Durham Elementary’s PTO president says, “My first reaction was shock when we received a donation of this magnitude.”

Yang, though, shrugs off the praise. “I’ll have that moment of victory in my mind forever. The shirt, of course, is a keepsake, but the memory will last.

“I’m not sure you should call it fame,” Yang continues, “but there comes a lot of responsibility with being a professional golfer. I’m quite aware that my kids look up to me, so I don’t want to be seen by my kids as somebody who is all about himself. I want to teach my kids a lesson that as much as you reap, you need to sow again. That’s what I learned as the son of a farmer.”

Last week, the day after losing in the second round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, that farmer’s son returned home to Texas. Instead of relaxing or heading to the course to practice in preparation for his next tournament, the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Yang accompanied his kids to the school’s annual Donuts with Dad activity. There, the only PGA TOUR player in attendance took time to have a little breakfast, visit with the kids and sign a few more autographs.

You know, sowing. Again and again.

Editor's Note: To bid on the shirt and pin flag, go to https://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action?id=105199288   <- 경매하는 곳 주소

한국 기사  : http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/02/23/2010022301121.html

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