All the right moves turned Honda into a must-play event

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At the time, Y.E. Yang's victory in the 2009 The Honda Classic was regarded as a stunning upset. His victory in the PGA Championship later that year sent his Official World Golf Ranking into the stratosphere.

When Y.E. Yang rolled in a ticklish 4-foot par-putt to clinch his first PGA TOUR title at last year's The Honda Classic in March, he did something quite unusual.

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First, he grabbed his golf bag and raised it over his head, shaking it for effect. Then he kept pointing to his TaylorMade visor, looking more like a NASCAR driver than a professional golfer by showing his allegiance to his sponsor.

"For the past two years, it was actually kind of frustrating for me. My performances were just not that great," said Yang, who four months earlier had to return to q-school to keep his PGA TOUR card. "I just felt bad for my sponsors. I wanted to show them that I was the top player that they expected of me and to thank them for sticking by me."

Yang had rewarded them by joining K.J. Choi as the only South Koreans to win on the PGA TOUR. Five months later, Yang paid an even greater compliment to his sponsors when he out-dueled Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship at Hazeltine to claim his first major championship. Yang has the distinction of being the only player ever to catch Woods when he's leading in the final round of the major.

It wasn't the first time Yang had beaten the world's top player. At the 2006 HSBC Champions Tournament, he beat Woods by two shots to earn the late bloomer a spot on the European Tour. That proved to be a critical step for Yang, who didn't take up the game until he was 19.

At Hazeltine, when asked if he wanted a rematch with Woods at, say, this year's The Honda Classic, the South Korean swiftly shook his head.

"No redos," Yang said, getting a huge laugh at the post-tournament press conference. "Never again. I would like to stay as the guy who won over Tiger at the PGA Championship and that's about it."

Not a bad way to be known, huh?

But Yang, who finished third Sunday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, has simply continued a recent pattern in which this week's The Honda Classic -- which during the 1990s and 2000s struggled to attract a decent field because it kept moving around South Florida -- has proven to be a launching pad for major championship winners.

Yang isn't even the only player to win at The Honda Classic for his first career TOUR title, then claim a major later that year. Todd Hamilton accomplished that feat in 2004 when he beat Davis Love III by a shot, then defeated Ernie Els in a playoff at the British Open.

Yang and Hamilton aren't the only Honda winners to go on and win major championships. Fact is, there are, amazingly, nine overall.

The others: 2005 champ Padraig Harrington (who has since won three majors); 1995 champ Mark O'Meara (who won both of his majors in 1998); 1992 winner Corey Pavin (who won his U.S. Open three years later); two-time Honda champ Mark Calcavecchia won his first in 1987 (two years before he won the British Open); 1985 winner Curtis Strange (who three years later won the first of back-to-back U.S. Opens; 1981 champ Tom Kite (who won the 1992 U.S. Open); 1979 winner Larry Nelson (who two years later won the first of his three majors)

There's also eight other Honda winners who already had claimed majors: Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Hale Irwin, Fred Couples, Nick Price, Justin Leonard and Els.

That means more than half of the 37 Honda Classic have won by players with major championships (17 Honda winners who combined for 20 titles). That's a claim not many non-major tournaments can make.

Little wonder, then, than when the field for this week's The Honda Classic was released Friday, it included quite an upgrade over the quality of players the event was attracting just five years ago. It included four players ranked in the top 10: No. 4 Lee Westwood, No. 6 Paul Casey, No. 9 Rory McIlroy and No. 10 Harrington.

Other notables include No. 13 Sergio Garcia, No. 14 Robert Allenby, No. 17 Els, No. 21 Camilo Villegas, No. 27 Yang, No. 29 Angel Cabrera and No. 30 Anthony Kim. (No. 23 Luke Donald, the 2006 winner and local resident, withdrew because his wife just gave birth to their first child.)

This upgrade wouldn't have been possible without two things: 1. The PGA TOUR asking Jack and Barbara Nicklaus to become unofficial hosts of the event three years ago (The Honda Classic's main charity is the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation); 2. The move in 2007 to PGA National's Champion Course, home to the 1983 Ryder Cup and the '87 PGA Championship.

The winning scores at The Champion Course have averaged 6.67 strokes under par the last three years, enabling the course to be ranked among the top 10 in difficulty each year. Two of the holes (No. 6 and No. 17) were among the most difficult on the PGA TOUR last season. What this does is attract better players because they know it won't be a putting contest.

The Honda Classic has gone from begging top players to commit to politely telling a few of them they don't have room for them in the field.

"Believe me, there's a lot of top European players who want to play here but can't get in," said Robert Allenby, who has three consecutive top-five finishes at The Honda Classic. "That shows you the strength of the field."

Who is the next Y.E. Yang in this year's field? Or Todd Hamilton? Who is the unknown player that might be winning a Honda on Sunday and holding a major championship by year's end?

Such a connection seemed far-fetched years ago. Recent history shows that's no longer the case.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.