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Kevin
NaC

USA

image: Iron Heads GC logo

Iron Heads GC

Age

41

Turned Pro in

2001

LIV debut

2022

image: Na650

Kevin Na: LIV veteran who was destined to be a professional golfer

Kevin Na had one thing on his mind growing up in southern California and that was to become a professional golfer.

At just 17 he chose turning pro over going to college with the full support of his family.

“My parents and my brother were all for it’” Na told Fairway To Heaven, LIV Golf’s official podcast.

“Some people questioned my decision, but I never thought that I wouldn’t make it. I felt like four years of golf anywhere in the world would be better than four years of college golf.

“My father was on the bag, my mother traveled with me, I was still only 18. I won on the Asian Tour, I was rookie of the year, I was fourth on the money list and it opened doors for me on the European Tour.

“I got to see the world at a young age and learn how to play in different conditions, it was a huge help in my career.”

From the Asian Tour to The Masters

Kevin Na went on to graduate from the Asian Tour to become a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, with a few adventures along the way.

Na was just 19 when he sealed his first tournament win, shooting a final round 66 to seal a two-stroke victory at the 2002 Volvo Masters of Asia.

That led to him being named rookie of the year and he went on to earn his PGA Tour card for the 2004 season.

A freak accident with a car door in 2006 put him out of action for six months with a broken hand, but he showed he was well on his way to recovery by winning his first rehab event, the Mark Christopher Charity Classic on the Nationwide Tour.

In 2010 Na qualified for The Masters and the US Open for the first time and he landed his first win on the PGA Tour with the 2011 Shriners Hospital for Children Open.

After finishing T3 in the 2015 CIMB Classic, Na moved up to 19th place in the official world golf rankings, a career best.

His next win didn’t arrive until 2018, a thumping five-stroke victory at a Military Tribute at The Greenbrier after which he gave an emotional speech on US TV, crying as he broke off from speaking English to address his watching Korean fans in their native language.

That long-awaited win was followed swiftly with two more successes in 2019, Na topping the leaderboard by four strokes at the Charles Schwab Challenge and collecting a second career win at the Shriners after a playoff with Patrick Cantlay.

His fifth and final PGA title came at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January 2021 when, from three shots back with just six holes to play, he sunk a succession of walk-in birdie putts, including on the par-5 18th hole, to claim victory at the Waialae Country Club.

Signing a LIV contract for its inaugural season

In his 19 years on the PGA Tour, Kevin Na played in 458 events, collected $37,819,638 in prize money and had ended every year from 2018 inside the top 50 of the official world golf rankings.

In June 2022 he announced that he was going to join LIV Golf via his X account @kevinna915.

Na was immediately installed as captain of Iron Heads GC and became one of the 12 original team leaders to tee off at LIV Golf London, when the series was introduced to the world.

While Iron Heads have been off the pace in the regular seasons so far, they almost turned a disappointing 2024 on its head with an amazing showing at the end of term Team Championship in Dallas.

Having finished last in the regular standings, Na and teammates Danny Lee, Jinichiro Kozuma and Scott Vincent fought their way past Brooks Koepka’s Smash in the quarter-finals and defending champions Crushers in the semis to be one of four teams to contest the final.

At one stage on the back nine, Iron Heads held the lead but eventually finished a very creditable T2, a remarkable result considering how the season had fared in general.

Na was 33rd in the individual standings with the highlights being a sixth-place finish in Hong Kong and tied seventh spot in Singapore.

Between those events was a meltdown on the final day in Adelaide which was caught on a fan video.

At the par-5 ninth hole, Na’s drive found a sandy lie in the woods and it took three attempts to get back on the fairway, helped along by a few expletives.

Walk-in the line with Tiger Woods

Walk-in putts are a trademark of Kevin Na’s game – following a putt towards the hole, confident that the ball is going to land in the cup.

Sometimes Na can be just a little too keen and his hand is hovering above the hole before the ball has arrived.

In the third round of The Players Championship in 2019, Na chased his four-foot putt on the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass and arrived at the hole before the ball, just managing to stop himself from picking it up before it disappeared from view.

His playing partner Tiger Woods then sank a shorter putt and copied Na by leaping forward to retrieve his ball with a huge smile.

“I’ve always done it,” said Na. “Nobody thought it was cool until, you know, the Big Cat imitated me.”

Sixteen years with caddie Kenny Harms

Midway through last season, Na announced on social media that he and caddie Kenny Harms were ending their 16-year partnership.

Harms had been Na’s bagman for all five of his PGA triumphs and 33 LIV Golf events. “It has been an incredible run! 16 years together, you have always been there for me on and off the golf course,” Na posted on Instagram.

“We have shared many amazing moments and also had some hardships along the way. I can’t thank you enough for the trust and support you have given me. It’s been extremely difficult to say goodbye. You will always be a brother to me.”

Seeing the funny side of shooting 16 on one hole

Top of Kevin Na’s ‘one to forget list’ is shooting a 16 on one hole at the 2011 Texas Valero Open.

His drive on the par-4 ninth hole veered right into trees and he took a penalty stroke to start again – and managed to fly his second drive back into the trees.

After bouncing the next shot off a tree, dropping a ball, hitting his own hand and at one stage whiffing the ball, he didn’t get back on to the fairway until his 12th stroke.

He eventually holed out for a 16, a record for the worst ever PGA Tour score on a par-4 hole. “I look at it and I laugh at it,” Na said, a year later.

“Maybe I should have done a fist bump for a 16 when I made the five-foot putt, it could have been a 17.”

Incredibly Na completed the round with a score of 80, eight over par, meaning he had been four under over the remaining 17 holes.

In the news with Dustin Johnson and Grayson Murray

Na was involved in an interesting exchange with Dustin Johnson, ranked world No.1, at the 2021 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

On the 11th green Johnson hit an eight-foot birdie putt just past the hole and slapped the ball back without marking its position or holing out.

Na said on the day: “His putt lipped out and he had six inches and it’s obviously good, but I hadn’t said anything, and he whacked it.

“I froze and looked at Kenny [Na’s caddie] and I wasn’t going to say, ‘that’s a penalty, you’re going to lose the hole’.

“I was going to say, ‘you know what, that was good anyway’.”

Under the strict rules of golf, Johnson should have waited until Na had given him the go ahead, but tournament organizers accepted his explanation that in breezy conditions he thought he had heard Na’s approval. Na went on to birdie four of the remaining holes to win the match.

In early 2022 Na was caught up in a social media spat, responding to a pot shot over X (formerly Twitter) from Grayson Murray, regarding his walk-in putts.

Three months later the pair had a public exchange of words on the driving range ahead of the Mexico Open at Vidanta, after which Na said: “I’m over it and moving on.”

Kevin Na’s life away from golf

Kevin Na was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1983 and at age eight his family moved to the United States. He grew up in southern California and became an American citizen at 18 through his mother.

Today, home for 41-year-old Na is Las Vegas, Nevada, where he lives with wife Julianne and their daughter and two sons, just a few minutes away from his home course, TPC Summerlin.

Na joked to Fairway To Heaven that he once complained to his dad about not being physically bigger, to which his dad replied: “You should be grateful you’re the tallest in the Na family at 5ft 11in.”

Kevin Na, what’s in the bag?

During the 2023 season Na used Instagram to run through a WITB special for his followers.

On show were a Titleist TSR3 driver set to D1 with a 3-wood and 5-wood from the same collection, accompanied by a Ping G430 hybrid. His 4-iron was a Titleist T100S while the remainder up to pitching wedge were the similar T100.

The bag was completed with a 54-degree Callaway wedge, 60-degree K-Grind Vokey and Scotty Cameron 2.6 putter.

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