by John Furgurson
PGA Tour Pro Kevin Na deserves an award. His slashing, silly 16 on the par-4 9th at the Texas Open — and his subsequent smile — wins him the title of the Forget-About-It Golfer-Of-The-Month.
It was the worst score ever recorded on a par-4 on the PGA tour, and second only to John Daly’s 18.
Na may have lost that tournament on one hole, but he sure won a lot of fans that day. After taking 12 strokes to get out of the jungly trees he was actually chuckling as he asked his caddy, “how are we going to count all those strokes?”
Kevin Na
His caddy was not amused, but Na shrugged it off and shot 33 on the back nine. Even though he missed the cut in Texas, the following week Na tied for 9th at Hilton Head, a very respectable showing that moved him up to 32nd in FedEx Cup points.
What Kevin Na did on number 9 in San Antonio wasn’t pro-like at all. It was precisely what average, ordinary guys do on a regular basis. We’re naturally talented when it comes to hacking it around in the trees and turning one bad swing into a long series of bad shots. And big numbers.
But what most golfers don’t do so well is bounce back from such a debacle like Na did. We just can’t forget about it.
We get pissed off and compound the problem by dwelling on the negative. We carry the experience around with us, at least until the cart girl makes her next appearance with a big ol’ glass of easy swing.
Na was four under par for his round, with the exception of that one, disastrous hole.
Now that’s my kinda scorekeeping… Optimistic!
How many times have you said something like this after a round… “I was even par after 6 holes!” Or “I played the back nine in just 3-over par.” All the while, leaving out the gory details of the rest of the round.
Never mind the snowman on that little par-4. Never mind the four three putts, the double mulligans and the uncounted water balls.
We’re great at forgetting big numbers of our own, but we love to relive the car wrecks of the PGA tour. It makes the players more human. More real. Let’s face it, when everyone’s hitting fairway, green, fairway, green all day, tournaments like that can get pretty boring to watch.
Maybe the reason that Na’s episode is such a YouTube sensation (almost 800,000 views) is that we’ve all been there… stars in our own epic failures.
I once tried hitting a big slice around a tree, fanned the clubface open, ricocheted it off the trunk and hit myself in the head. Hard. Took me off my feet. Thankfully, I wasn’t within sight of the clubhouse, much less miked-up on national television.
The bottom line is, Na handled himself well. He had a winning, “that’s golf” attitude that will serve him well on and off the course. As one writer put it, he’s now “a man of the people.” And a winner in our book.
Forget About It!
If you haven’t seen the footage, and are dying to find out how he made a 16 without losing a ball or hitting it out of bounds, here’s the YouTube link:
