Do kids need sports training at 6? Ask Y.E. Yang

Granted, Tiger Woods (with a two-stroke lead with 18 holes to play) beats Y.E. Yang in a major championship 98 times out of 100. Maybe 99.

Still, I couldn't help noticing the contrasting life stories of these two, after Yang's improbable victory in the PGA Championship Sunday.

Woods who got a golf club, then his baby teeth. Brought along in the sport by a dad consumed with raising a champion. At 2, appeared on the Mike Douglas Show. At 3, had a nine-hole score of 48. At age five, featured in Golf Digest and on ABC's That's Incredible. Winner of the Junior World Championships six times. A prodigy in every sense of the word.

Yang who played many sports as a kid - baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball - but never golf. Who had no interest in the sport whatsoever, in part because his father regarded golf as elitist. Who did not touch a club until age 19, and then only because he'd taken a lousy job picking up balls at a country club. Who until he had turned pro and advanced to playing tournaments was almost entirely self-taught.

So, respectfully, I ask, do we really need to sign up our six-year-olds for travel soccer?