LIV Greenbrier Preview: Iron Heads hope good memories will lead to good play
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. – Everyone is talking about The Old White course at Greenbrier being a bomber’s paradise. But a quick look at the list of past champions throws up a name that is an outlier – Iron Heads Captain Kevin Na.
At 291.5 yards average driving distance, Na is down in 49th place and is one of the shortest hitters in the league. And yet, the Las Vegas resident won the 2018 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on the PGA Tour, shooting 19-under par.
“It helps if you hit the ball long here,” said Na. “But I feel more than long hitters, it favors good ball strikers. You need to hit greens in regulation, and you need to have proximity to the hole.”
There are four past winners on the golf course in the field this week, led by defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, and two of them are part of Iron Heads GC. Danny Lee is the 2015 champion when he won a four-way playoff. Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann won his maiden PGA Tour title here the year after Na, in 2019.
Lee and Na were tied 38th and 43rd respectively last year in the LIV Golf Greenbrier, but there is always something about returning to a place where you have had success in the past.
“I think this is a golf course that suits our game. Danny and I have won here both, and I feel like this is a golf course that we could make the podium on,” said Na.
“Greenbrier is a beautiful resort. I really enjoyed coming here back in the days when I used to play the PGA Tour. It brought back a lot of good memories, and that is important. I have really enjoyed playing here, and that is important too.”
Iron Heads are down in 13th place in the season-long standings, with a 6th place in Adelaide (where both Lee and Jinichiro Kozuma were tied 9th) their best finish of the year.
With just two regular season events remaining before the LIV Team Championship, even two wins would not be enough to get them into the top-three, thus ensuring a bye on the opening day in Dallas. However, it would be a good time to start trending in the right direction and let the vagaries of matchplay golf decide their fate in the season finale.
Ahead of LIV Golf UK by JCB, Na had said: “Once you don’t finish as the Top-3, it does not matter. It only means that unlike those teams, we will have to play one round extra in the Team Championship. If we play those three days well, a lot can change.
“Therefore, as we get closer to Dallas (September 20-22), it is imperative that all our players peak in time for that.”
The good news for Iron Heads is that Scott Vincent is showing signs of his old form. He is currently No. 49 in the Individual Standings, and will have to make a heroic move to get inside the Lock Zone of top-24, but with tied 17th and tied 16th finish in his last two starts in Andalucia and UK, the solidity and the scoring seems to be back for the Zimbabwean.
Na, at No29, and Lee, at No36, are the best placed among the Iron Heads players.
Lee was in contention in Valderrama and played in the final group, but made a few mistakes coming down the stretch to finish tied 6th, his best result of the season so far.
In Friday’s first round, Na is part of an all-Captains group and will tee off on the 18th hole alongside Stinger GC’s Louis Oosthuizen and Fireballs’ Sergio Garcia. Lee, Vincent and Kozuma are paired together and will tee off from Hole No. 6 at 1315 local time.