DALLAS, Texas - You don't go out golfing with the guys without a fair amount of trash talk about each other's bad shots. Even the golfer who just pulled off the impossible doesn't get a fair pass today.

"Ouch," says one of Y.E. Yang's buddies, holding up his fingers an inch apart, as Yang missed a putt on the 12th. Yang flashes him a sideways grin, as if to say he'll get him back on the 13th. Yang is playing with his buddies before our interview, squeezing in time with friends before the media interviews today. We drove up in surprise to see Yang playing, and to our greater surprise, he welcomed us to follow him around.

"Make my friends nervous," he joked to me.

You'd never know by watching these guys joke that YE Yang has just pulled off a historic, and life changing, win last week.

Ranked 110th in the world, Yang faced off with Tiger Woods in the final round of the PGA Championship. The number one-ranked Woods had never lost when entering the final round as the leader, until Yang beat him in one of the sport's greatest upsets, pulling off a feat no other golfer in the world has ever done.

"It will bring peace to the Koreas," joked one of his buddies. Maybe not, but that win catapulted the 37 year old to stratospheric heights of hero-worship in South Korea and across Asia. Yang's victory at the PGA made him the world's first player from Asia to win a major championship, putting a more global face on a sport dominated by Europeans and Americans. Since that win, the relatively unknown golf player has been thrust onto the global stage, chased by international media (we literally chased him onto the golf course today). He even got a personal call from South Korea's president.

Not bad for a kid from a farming family of 8, who couldn't afford to step on a golf course growing up. Yang didn't have the silver spoon background that many golfers have. He taught himself to play at age 19, old by golf standards, hitting balls after-hours at the driving range where he worked. He learned how to grip a club and swing, he tells me, from instructional videos by Jack Nicklaus. Yang never dreamed he'd ever face off with the great Tiger Woods, whom he'd watched on TV for years.

"I woke up that morning and didn't expect to win," Yang said, talking about the final round of the PGA Championship. "So I had this calm in my heart."

That calm helped Yang not crack in the final round, as thousands of spectators watched on the green and millions around the world. But what was notable on that day was how Yang appeared playful, even waving to the live TV camera, as he walked on the fairway of the 15th hole.

"We all saw him smiling throughout the back nine, having fun." said Brian Mogg, Yang's swing coach. "That's the kind of guy he is at all times and it was cool to watch his personality come out, under the heat of playing with Tiger. He's been in some ways, maybe fortunate not to have the spoiled upbringing that many golfers have had and he's been able to have the perspective of, it's a game."

Watching Yang play with his friends on this Dallas, Texas golf course, you can see that love of the game is obvious. Yang later tells me that he hopes to never face off with Tiger again, because he's not sure he'd win again. You get the sense that while wins at the PGA level are important, this game with friends is just as important - and at the heart of why Yang managed to accomplish what no other golfer in the world could.