The inside story on how the Iron Heads landed the Korean Tour’s best player
In the last year, Kevin Na has spent many sleepless nights at his home in Las Vegas, watching golf tournaments on TV from halfway around the world.
It wasn’t insomnia. Na had a keen interest in scouting one young player from South Korea, keeping tabs on his progress. The more Na saw, the more he liked.
Na soon became convinced. If a roster spot opened up on his Iron Heads GC, this was the guy.
On Tuesday night – or Wednesday morning in Seoul, depending on your frame of reference – Na officially got his guy.
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The Iron Heads announced the signing of 22-year-old Yubin Jang, the Korean Tour’s 2024 Player of the Year after an impressive season with two wins, five runner-up finishes and four other top 10s.
“He’s going to be the next best Korean golfer,” Na said. “That’s how much I believe in him. And I told him that, too.”
Jang is the first full-time player from the Korean Tour to become a regular LIV Golf member and joins Korean-born Na and Danny Lee on the Asian-centric team that also includes Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma.
The addition of Jang continues the Iron Heads’ recent stretch of positive energy, starting with their spectacular upset-fueled run at the Dallas Team Championship – their tie for second is the team’s best-ever tournament result – followed by the announcement that LIV Golf will make its Korean debut during the 2025 season. Then earlier this week, Kozuma and Lee were officially re-signed.
As captain of a club that has struggled for results since the first LIV Golf season, Na could hardly contain his enthusiasm when talking about Jang and the Iron Heads’ lineup that finally seems primed to make serious noise in 2025.
“It’s been frustrating at times, and believe me, I can talk all about the frustration,” Na said. “But right now, we’re talking about all the positives – and there’s a lot of positives.”
Targeting an emerging talent and convincing him to join LIV Golf may arguably be Na’s biggest achievement as captain, especially considering the time and effort he devoted to recruiting Jang.
It started a year ago, even before Jang turned pro. His stretch of success that included an amateur win at the Korean Tour’s Gunsan Open, as well as a team gold medal at the Asian Games, caught Na’s attention.
Jang continued to build his resume in 2024. He had four top-6 finishes during a five-week stretch early in the Korean season. After two missed cuts, his next four starts resulted in a solo second, a tie for third, another solo second, and then a successful defense of his Gunsan victory in August.
By then, Na was hooked. Jang’s playoff victory in October at the Busan Open continued his dominant run, which ultimately ended by becoming the first Korean Tour player to win more than one billion won in a single season (his total winnings were approximately $787,000 USD).
“It’s not just, oh, he won the money title this year, I’m going after him,” Na said. “I’ve been watching him for more than a year. I’ve been watching a lot of guys.
“But the coolest thing about it is nobody from the Korean Tour has previously gone straight to the world stage. So, this shows you how much the Korean Tour has elevated and elevated their players.
“I’m seeing a lot of good players come out of there. Obviously, I know all the guys on the PGA Tour and I’m friends with all the guys. But in the end, I had one recruit, and I put all my eggs in one basket. And that was him.”
Being sold on a player’s potential for future greatness is just one half of the equation. Na also needed to convince Jang that it was in the best interests of his burgeoning career to join LIV Golf.
Na’s 23 years of experience as a professional golfer, his ties to the Korean golf community, and his straight-shooting approach helped to shape an effective sales pitch.
“I just told him this is the right move for him,” Na recalled. “He obviously had thoughts of going to the U.S. tour and I said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s no guarantee you’re going straight to the top level and playing. It takes a few years, maybe on the Korn Ferry Tour, maybe a year. And then it’ll take maybe another year or two to get to the elevated events.
"'Or you can come straight here, get a multi-year deal, you’re going to play against the best in the world, and the best fields in golf. Majors? Well, it’s coming, don’t worry.’
“He liked everything I had to say, and obviously he looks up to me as a fellow Korean and he wanted to follow what I’m doing out here.
“He’s probably going to end up moving near me in Vegas. I convinced him that he needs to have a base in the U.S. because he’s going to become a world-class player and playing at that world level. So, he wants to be near me and kind of shadow me a little bit. I’m more than happy to mentor him.”
The two spoke frequently. Jang needed assurances that if he committed to LIV that there would be a spot for him; Scott Vincent’s relegation freed up space on the roster. Decisions on Lee and Kozuma also were required.
Na, meanwhile, needed assurances that Jang would honor his commitment once the league began working on the details.
“I said, ‘Once you commit to me, there’s no backing out. You keep your word and we’re going all the way,’” Na said. “He’s very mature. He didn’t give me an answer right away. He goes, ‘Can you give me a few days to think about it?’ I said, I’ll give you a week.
“He called me back and said, ‘I’m in.’ I said, ‘No backing out. We’re going all the way.’ He said, ‘You got it.’”
At last week’s PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers, Na and Lee played the first two rounds with Yang. Na and Yang both made the cut at 8 under and were paired again for the third round. Ultimately, Na tied for ninth while Yang tied for 22nd.
But as far as Na is concerned, he landed the biggest prize last week in Riyadh.
“I liked everything I saw,” Na said. “He's a good ball-striker, good build, hits it a long way, and he's very modest, but I know deep down inside, he's not scared. He’s going to be a world-class player.”
The Iron Heads will enter 2025 as one of three teams to have never won a LIV Golf tournament. Lee’s individual victory in 2023 in a playoff in Tucson remains the only time a team member has lifted a LIV Golf trophy. In 2024, the Iron Heads were last in points in the regular season before coming to life in Dallas.
With fresh blood and hungry optimism, Na likes his team’s chances to end its drought.
“I'm pretty confident that we have the capability to win once or maybe multiple times,” Na said, “but four guys have got to get together and put up a number, and sometimes it's not easy.”
It should be easier, though, with the whizz kid from Korea.
(Photo courtesy of Paul Lakatos/Asian Tour)