IRON HEADS GET OFF TO A SLOW START IN THE SEASON-OPENER

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Captain Kevin Na shot three successive rounds of 70 to finish tied 17th and inside the points in the Individual Standings of the season-opener in Mayakoba, but his Iron Heads just could not get enough birdies and wound up in 13th place in the team competition.

On a narrow golf course where finding the fairways was at a premium, Na did well to be second in the stat with 22 fairways. However, he could not convert it to his advantage.

With all four rounds counting on the final day, Danny Lee (4-over) and Scott Vincent (3-over) struggled. The good news was that both players finished their outing with birdies and would have shaken their rust before next week’s event in Las Vegas.

Lee is coming off a wrist surgery in October last year that kept him away from the game for a long time, while Vincent’s preparation for the tournament was hampered as he became a father for the second time last week.

Iron Heads’ best round of the tournament was a 2-under par by Vincent on the opening day. An early bogey in his second hole and a late bogey on his final hole were offset by an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole and birdies on the sixth and 18th.

The new man in Iron Heads' line-up, Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma, got off to a nightmare start on Friday with a triple bogey seven on his opening 12th hole, which also happened to be the toughest hole on the golf course playing to an average of 4.309. Despite that, he showed plenty of courage to finish on even-par 71.

Kozuma’s scores did not count towards the team total on the first two days, but he was the second-best placed Iron Heads member, tying for 38th place at 3-over par total. Vincent matched his teammates aggregate, while Lee was 48th at 6-over.

STAT REVIEW

Field ranking in parentheses

Fairways Hit

Na – 22 (T2)

Kozuma – 20 (T7)

Vincent – 19 (T14)

Lee – 13 (T50)

Driving Distance Avg.

Na – 286.8 (33)

Kozuma – 281.7 (43)

Vincent – 280.0 (47)

Lee – 287.0 (30)

Greens in Regulation

Na – 31 (T30)

Kozuma – 31 (T30)

Vincent – 34 (T17)

Lee – 27 (T48)

Total Putts

Na – 82 (T20)

Kozuma – 81 (T17)

Vincent – 87 (T45)

Lee – 84 (T30)

Total Birdies

Na – 10 (T29)

Kozuma – 10 (T29)

Vincent – 9 (T36)

Lee – 7 (T52)