Just your average son of a farmer from the city of Seogwipo on Korea’s Cheju Island until he picked up a golf club at age 19:

Y.E. Yang was already 19 when he first picked up an iron at the country club where he had a low-wage job shagging golf balls. He practiced late into the night after the paying customers had gone until he became good enough to turn pro.

Now, at 37, following a stunning victory over Tiger Woods, he is the first Asian-born man to win a major golf tournament — not to mention the pride of a golf-crazy nation and the toast of a continent.

“Congratulations to Yang Yong-eun for being the first Asian to win the PGA!” read hastily made banners hanging at the Ora Country Club on the resort island of Jeju, where Yang spent his days picking up thousands of balls and his nights practicing his swing.

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Yang calls himself an “average Joe” from a humble farming family from a village near Seogwipo. He says he once aspired to be a bodybuilder and dreamed of owning his own gym.

But a knee injury forced him to reconsider his bodybuilding career, and at age 19, he took a job collecting golf balls at one of Jeju’s posh golf resorts.

Most South Korean golfers go through a rigorous “elite” course for aspiring pros. But Yang was already far older than the students training to becoming pro golfers, and he didn’t have the money for lessons or green fees.

He agreed to pick up balls as a trainee in exchange for off-hours access to the driving range and a small monthly wage, officials said.

Yang is legendary for having arrived as early as 5 a.m. to practice before the range opened and returning to hit more balls after closing time, even stringing up his own lights after dark.

Kim Young-chan, executive director of the driving range, said Yang stood out back then — but he certainly never expected him to beat Tiger Woods. He said the PGA win left him speechless.

Yang had played only about 100 rounds of golf by the time he left the country club for compulsory military services. When he was finished, he went to New Zealand to concentrate on golf for three months. In 1996, he turned pro — against his father’s wishes.

Yang Han-joon, who grows root vegetables, pressured his son to join him in the fields. “Golf is for rich people,” he recalled saying. “Why are you trying to become a golfer? Please don’t do it.”  [Associated Press]

Make sure to read the rest of the article because Yang’s life story really is a rags to riches story that was made possible by a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication on his part that should resonate with many Koreans.