Asia's first major champion in the hunt at Augusta

Yang Yong-Eun, who won last year's PGA Championship for Asia's first major men's golf title, fired a five-under par 67 to stand one stroke off the first-round lead at the Masters.

The 38-year-old South Korean, displaying the form he used to outduel Tiger Woods over the final holes last August at Hazeltine, showed his breakthrough feat was no fluke by putting himself into contention at Augusta National.

"Everything came to me very comfortably," Yang said on Thursday. "I set my personal record on the course, so it feels really good. Hopefully I can sustain this. I don't want to be too aggressive. I just want to sustain this."

Yang, who missed the Masters cut last year and shared 30th in 2007 in his only prior Augusta National starts, would be the first back-to-back major winner since Irishman Padraig Harrington won the 2008 British Open and PGA titles if he dons the green jacket symbolic of Masters supremacy on Sunday.

Yang has become an inspiration for young Asian golfers, including US Amateur champion An Byeong-Hun and Asian Amateur champion Han Chang-won, both at this year's Masters.

Yang birdied the par-5 second but gave the stroke back with his lone bogey of the day at the par-4 seventh. He birdied four of five holes starting at the ninth, adding the 10th plus the par-3 12th and par-5 13th to reach four-under.

Another birdie at the par-5 15th and Yang found himself one stroke behind 50-year-old leader Fred Couple and sharing second place with 60-year-old US legend Tom Watson, two-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson, English star Lee Westwood and countryman K.J. Choi.

"I saved par on the first and then birdied the second. It felt good, so I thought I was going to probably have a comfortable afternoon," Yang said.

"Then on the seventh I bogeyed and it rattled me a bit. I tried to hit a fade on the tee, but it actually went a bit left. It ended up right behind the tree, so I had to chip out."

Yang missed a 10-foot par putt but answered with a birdie on nine and sizzled on the back nine on a day he expected to aim for pars because of storms expected in the afternoon.

Yang dropped a 32-foot birdie putt at the 10th and a 10-footer for birdie at the 12th. A tap-in birdie at 13 and short birdie putt at 15 followed eagle misses.

"Number 10 really helped me gain confidence in controlling my score as much as my game," Yang said.