Kevin Na still on a roll after first Tour win
With success sometimes comes complacency.
Kevin Na had plenty of success last year, arguably his best on the PGA Tour, since it included his first victory. For that matter, he’s had three outstanding seasons in a row now.
But there’s certainly no sign of complacency this season. Na hasn’t let off the gas since earning his first PGA Tour victory last October.
If anything, he’s stomping on the accelerator, driving toward more success while building off that win in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin.
Na, who has called Las Vegas home for three years, had six top-10 finishes in 2011 and earned $2.33 million — his third straight year of breaking the
$2 million mark — while making the cut in 15 of 26 events. While that’s a great year by almost any PGA Tour golfer’s standards, Na appears poised to do even better in 2012.
He’s played in six tournaments so far this season, making five cuts. He’s already got two top-five efforts and has cleared $640,000. He tied for fifth at the Phoenix Open the first week of February, then came back a week later and tied for fifth against a stellar field at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
This week, he gets to play in a prestigious World Golf Championship event, teeing it up at the Accenture Match Play Championships at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz. That field is limited to 64 players.
Yes, you could say things are going quite well for the 28-year-old.
“Obviously, with the win in October in Vegas, that boosted my confidence,” Na said. “And I worked really hard in the offseason.”
Much of that work was on his swing — work that actually began months before his breakthrough victory on his home course.
“I made some swing changes with my coach, Dale Lynch,” Na said. “I was trying to make some changes before I won. It started at the Masters last year. And now it’s really starting to come together.”
It’s not just the run of high finishes clueing him in, either.
“The ball is telling me I’m doing the right thing,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent (perfect). I’m close to 80, 90 percent. Old habits still creep in, but I know how to fix it.
“It’s great when you know what to do with your swing out there, and it’s nice to know how to make adjustments while you’re playing. My changes are working.”
His attitude surely must help, too. Na is as down-to-earth a golfer as you’ll find on the PGA Tour, an extremely approachable player who will regularly jump on his fan page on Facebook to converse with his fans and followers.
Na said his strong start in 2012 isn’t unexpected. He grew up in Southern California and has always enjoyed the West Coast tourneys. And his win at the Shriners event earned him a berth in the season-opening Tournament of Champions in Hawaii, where he took 12th.
“I’ve usually had a good West Coast swing my whole career,” said Na, who is in his 12th year as a professional and has career earnings approaching $12 million. “Those are (tournaments) where I usually play well, so my expectations are high. Sometimes it’s hard to live up to those expectations, but I’ve been doing that, so I’m really pleased.”
Pebble Beach, played on three courses over four days, proved to be a great weekend for Na. He got out of the gate quickly with a 6-under 66 on the Spyglass Hill course, then worked through a dramatic change of weather midround on the second day to card a 1-under 69 at Monterey Peninsula — a round he played with eventual winner Phil Mickelson.
“The weather was perfect on Thursday (in the first round), and everyone took it low. Then the weather changed in the middle of the day Friday,” said Na, noting the sudden onset of rain wasn’t predicted, catching the field off guard. “Nobody had umbrellas. I was playing with Phil, and he didn’t have an umbrella.
“The first day and a half, it was perfect. The end of the second round and the third round were pretty rough.”
Still, Na managed a 2-under 70 in the third round on the Pebble Beach Links course, putting him in position to make a Sunday run at the title, as he stood at 9 under par. As it turned out, Mickelson — also at 9 under through three rounds — made the big run, coming from six strokes behind to win the tournament.
But Na had another solid round of 2-under 70 on the Links course, putting him under par for all four rounds on a course notorious for chewing up golfers and spitting them out — even in good weather.
“It still had its teeth,” Na said. “It was a pretty satisfying week. I had my chances on Sunday, but overall, I was pretty happy with where I finished.”
Na’s efforts so far this year have pushed him to 15th in the FedEx Cup rankings, and he stands 62nd in the World Golf Rankings. He’s hoping for more success this week at the Match Play Championships.
And he’d really like another trophy to go alongside his Shriners Open hardware. Another victory is one of his key goals for this season.
“I just want to win again and play well in the majors,” Na said. “I’m definitely excited to be in the mix.”
So what will it take for him to add more titles? More of the same things he’s done the past several months.
“I just think I need to trust what I’m doing, and keep doing that,” he said.
