Sony Open champ Kevin Na is past due for international recognition

After picking up his fifth PGA Tour win on Sunday, Kevin Na should be in contention for the American Ryder Cup team

Kevin Na is easy to pick out on a golf course. He’s the player with the putting stroke so smooth he often walks in his putts, picking the ball out of the hole as soon as it falls in.

His prowess on the greens has allowed Na, who hasn’t been among the top-150 on the PGA Tour in driving distance since 2014, to compile quite an impressive resume. He added to it on Sunday, shooting a final-round 65 and making birdie on four of his last six holes to win the Sony Open in Hawaii by one shot.

The 37-year-old South Korean native, who immigrated to the United States as a child and now calls Las Vegas home, owns five career PGA Tour wins. He’s won four tournaments since the start of 2018, behind only Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Rory McIlroy. And, with the win on Sunday, he joined Johnson and DeChambeau as the only players with a win each of the last four seasons. Heady company, indeed.

Kevin Na is quickly becoming a household name

But one thing Na has never done is represent his adopted home country on an international stage. Despite the fact he’s been a regular member of the PGA Tour since 2004, when he was 21, Na has never made a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team. That’s something he’s working on changing in 2021.

“You know, I haven’t made a team golf event yet. I’ve been close a few times. I really thought I had a chance at the Presidents Cup,” he said following his win on Sunday. “You know, I’m a fighter. I’m a good match-play player. I’m a good putter. Making those key putts is going to wear down the opponents, and I think I could be a good pick, a good help to the team.”

Na has the sort of game that should excel in the pressure-packed atmosphere of a Ryder Cup. He’s a wizard on the greens. In 2020, he was 179th in strokes gained: off the tee but still finished in the top-50 in scoring average on tour thanks to a fifth-place ranking in putting. In his prior win before Sunday, at the Shriners Hospitals Open in October 2019, he set a PGA Tour record in feet of putts made in a week.

His victory at the Shriners Open came one month before Captain Tiger Woods made his picks for the Presidents Cup team that would represent the United States at Royal Melbourne. Na was a leading contender to be one of those picks after coming off the greatest putting performance in tour history. But he was not chosen and was forced, once again, to watch Team USA compete internationally without him.

In addition to his great putting, Na is a closer. In three of his last four wins, he shot 66 or better on Sunday to win. In Hawaii, he went to the final hole tied for the lead before hitting a solid 5-wood from the rough over the green on the par-five. He got up-and-down for birdie to finish at 21-under for the tournament, a shot ahead of Chris Kirk and Joaquin Niemann. After just one win in his first 14 years on tour and going 158 straight starts without one between 2011-2018, Na has now won four times in his last 57 starts.

Wouldn’t Captain Steve Stricker want a player like that when he leads Team USA against the Europeans at Whistling Straits in September? Na, after years of waiting for his opportunity, certainly hopes so.