YE Yang was clearly the compelling reason to watch the PGA Championship on Sunday.  We didn't know it at the time, but he really was.  Had he crumbled early, or Tiger gone out and birdied two of the first four holes, there was a good chance that I would have had to put the TV on mute for the day. 

It's not because I don't want to see Tiger win.  Rather, it is because CBS' coverage of the PGA Championship was awful.  Like Dating in the Dark awful.  Like I would rather be forced to watch More to Love a la A Clockwork Orange than deal with that muck again.

The PGA Championship was pimped out by CBS.  The leaderboards for the championship were littered with ads for innumerable sponsors.  After winning me over with that cute dog commerical, I now don't want to adopt a dog or buy insurance from Travelers.  Every replay was sponsored by Cialis or Avodart.  I don't have a going problem or a growing problem.  I had a TV problem.

The Masters features 56 minutes of golf action each hour.  This PGA Championship may have gotten to twenty minutes.  Two shots, commerical.  One shot, leaderboard, montage sequence, commercial.  It was almost unwatchable at times.

Thank God for DirecTV and PGA.com, which were simulcasting unique channels alongside the CBS coverage.  They featured more video of the lead pair than CBS did all day.  And, I grew to like the team of Brian Katrek and Golf Channel's Michael Breed.  I mean, Gary McCord was hacking it up on 16 tower.  Why not let these two guys have a shot at it?  I can only thank my lucky stars that Verne Lundquist has some kind of magnetizing force for history-altering shots.  If McCord got to call Yang's chip in for eagle, it may well have ruined the moment.  This was not the Reno-Tahoe Open, fellas.

The CBS crew - usually pretty reliable - seemed to offer little in the way of on-course analysis in the critical moments.  It was almost as though they were resting on their laurels in anticipation of a Yang implosion.  That kind of malaise may well have cost Tiger Woods his 15th major title and it certainly cost CBS in terms of production value.

A showdown was developing before our very eyes on Sunday afternoon, complete with a lot of gamesmanship.  It seemed like CBS was debating whether or not to point it out to the casual fan.  Tiger was sensing the win slipping through his fingers and was applying his usual Jedi mind tricks to obfuscate opponents.  Nary but a rare mention of it seemed to be made.

The PGA Championship may be the ugly stepsister to the US Open, but it doesn't deserve treatment worse than Cinderella got before the pumpkin turned into a carriage.  Despite Johnny Miller, NBC Sports did a superb job with the US Open in the way of coverage and analysis.  Never did I think that I would long for the dulcent tones of another Jimmy Roberts essay, but I missed the guy this weekend.  (I will never long for one from Rick Reilly at ABC.)  Tim Rosaforte offers interesting insight into the innerworkings of these players' lives.  That kind of personal touch was missing at Hazeltine. 

Instead, we got FedEx Cup standings and more recycled Tiger facts that are more deserving of a packet of instant oatmeal than a major championship.  70 wins.  14 for 14 15.  I got it.  I have committed it to memory.

Luckily, the action down the stretch spoke way louder than the white noise we were getting from the broadcast crew.  The drama of the back nine elevated with each passing shot.  No words were necessary to explain the significance of what was developing and ultimately happened.  The shotmaking of Yang and the facial expressions of Tiger Woods told the story.

For what it's worth, Jim Nantz's championship pun - "Y! E! S!" - was pretty good considering the surprise of the emerging champion.

The end result, though, may prove that however bad the coverage is that great golf will resound with the public - if Tiger Woods is involved somehow.  The ratings for the final round of the PGA Championship were up 150% over last year.  It was the highest PGA final round rating since Rich Beem bested Woods on the same track in 2002.  The two day average from the weekend tied the '99 event at Medinah - Woods v. El Nino - for the third best ever.