When Kevin Na won last year’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, it marked his first PGA Tour win in nearly seven years. Na didn’t have to wait nearly as long for his next win, taking the Charles Schwab Challenge at venerable Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth for his third PGA Tour title and his second in approximately 11 months.
Na did so with a strong game into and on the greens, something he said was important to success, given his relative lack of distance off the tee (he ranked 58th for the week in driving distance, but first in greens in regulation and strokes gained/approach the green while ranking second in strokes gained/putting).
“I keep saying this is a fairway-and-in golf course,” Na said after the third round. “You kind of put it in play somewhere, and you have to hit a lot of good iron shots and make some putts.”
He definitely made some putts Sunday. Na knocked in putts of 33 feet for birdie on the par-3 fourth, a 19-footer at the eighth for another par-3 birdie and then, finally, a nine-footer on the par-4 14th hole that stretched his lead to a comfortable four strokes (he ended up winning by three shots over Tony Finau). In all Na picked up more than six strokes on the field on the greens for the week.
Na’s putter is an Odyssey Toulon Madison with a “Rose Gold” finish. The slant-neck hosel blade measures 35 inches in length and has just 2.25 degrees of loft. Na’s irons are Callaway’s 2016 version of its Apex Pro model with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips.
Na’s play earns him a place on the club’s coveted Wall of Champions, something that was not lost on Na.
“Standing on the first tee I looked at that wall, and in my head, I engraved my name on it,” Na said. “And sure enough, it’s going to be there.”
Yes it is.
What Kevin Na had in the bag at the Charles Schwab Challenge
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Driver: Callaway Great Big Bertha Epic (Graphite Design Tour AD GP 6-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero, 13.5 degrees
Hybrid: PXG 0317X Gen2, 19 degrees
Irons (4): Callaway Rogue Pro; (5-PW): Callaway Apex Pro 16
Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy 4 (50, 54 degrees); Titleist Vokey prototype (60 degrees)
Putter: Odyssey Toulon Madison
