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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 8, 2015

Kevin Na

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Kevin Na to the interview room. Kevin leading at 8-under par. Talk about your play so far and where you stand.

KEVIN NA: Well, any time you shoot in the 60s two rounds here it's pretty good. I was very pleased with the way I played the first two days. The first day I hit it absolutely perfect out there. I felt like my from tee to green, I couldn't have done much better. The only bogey I made was a 3-putt. It was a long putt, but I putted pretty well overall on the first day, and today I hit it a little sideways a few times, a couple bad shots, but when I needed to make that par save it was the putter that kind of came through, and I made some really good putts out there for birdie, also, and the putter kind of kept my day going today. I felt like I hit a couple loose shots just because I was a little tired from yesterday. After I was done with media and had dinner on the golf course, it was 8:30 by the time I got out of here, and I got to the golf course today at 7:15, so it wasn't even 12 hours of rest. But I'm going to get some good rest today, so hopefully I can go do well tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.

Q. Can you retell about getting the phone call from your mom when you were with the Golf Channel, and to what extent -- what influences your mother had on your career?
KEVIN NA: I love my mom. She's the sweetest lady in the world. Even now, I mean, I go visit her and just, Kevin, do you need anything? You want me to cook for you? I'm still her baby. I'm the youngest in the family, and if it wasn't for my mother, I probably wouldn't be here where I am. I had a lot of support growing up, and I haven't seen her in a while, so I miss her.

Q. What did you say to her when she called?
KEVIN NA: Well, I didn't answer it. I was on air. (Laughter.) It would be funny if I said, Mom, I got to call you back. (Laughter.)

Q. What was her role in your golf career? What did she do to help you in that regard?
KEVIN NA: My mom was a very positive person. So, anytime I got down on myself, she was the one to kind of get me back up and so I can have some confidence in my game. That played a big role in my career.

Q. Her name and where she lives?
KEVIN NA: My mom? I'll give you the easy name. It's Annie Na. Everybody calls her Mama Na. That makes -- if that makes it easier. Everyone calls her Mama Na, all my friends, a lot of people on TOUR. So that's kind of her nickname, Mama Na.

Q. Where does she live?
KEVIN NA: She lives in California, but right now, my parents are both in Korea right now.

Q. Where were you coming into this week? Where has your game been this year and coming here do you sort of feel like, yeah, I got this, I know this course, I've done well here?
KEVIN NA: I was pretty happy with my game coming in. I had a really good Florida Swing. I had a good Masters. Last week I didn't feel like I played that bad, it was really cold and it was difficult on my back. But my game felt like it was pretty good, and as I practiced Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, my ball striking got better and better. This course, I like this golf course. I always feel like when I come here that it's like maybe this is my year again. Kind of that kind of feeling. So I always look forward to coming here.

Q. The hot weather is good for your back?
KEVIN NA: Definitely. We play in a lot of heat, really hot weather, and sometimes it's like, man, you know, I wouldn't mind a little cold weather once in a while, and oh, it wasn't fun last week.

Q. You mentioned that three years ago you were obviously in this same position. What do you think you'll take from that weekend?
KEVIN NA: Well, I learned a lot. I don't think I'm in the same position. In the leader-wise, yes. But I was dealing with a lot of stuff a few years ago. So I'm trying to think positive here. I'm thinking that I think I've got a better shot this time.

Q. How much more of a better golfer are you than you were three years ago?
KEVIN NA: Definitely a better golfer, but overall, I think I'm mentally tougher because I had gone through that, and I'm a lot more happier. Everything's, I think, throughout the years -- anybody, you look back a few years ago, it's like, man, I think I'm smarter now than I was before. So, I think my career has really progressed in the past few years, and I'm not going to think of this as, you know what, I'm in the lead, I've got two more days. I'm just going to go out there and try to enjoy what's going on right now, which have I been the first two days. So if I keep enjoying myself, I think good results are going to come.

Q. Following up on your contention from three years ago, I think a lot of people think about you and they think about pace of play. Can you sort of run through for us how you have worked to overcome?
KEVIN NA: I had the yips. That's what it was.

Q. Is that what it was?
KEVIN NA: Yeah. I mean, it's pretty hard to play golf when you can't take the club back. And I admitted it. I didn't use that word, yips, but I told everyone that I couldn't take the club back. I mean I was pretty honest. I wasn't trying to cover anything up. I told you exactly what -- I told everyone what I was going through. So, I don't think -- but the thing was, I think sometimes people were hard on me about that, when I was honest. And I think everyone, not everyone, a lot of the players out here go through some kind of a yip in their career. But just me -- and a lot of the guys when you have that, they fall off the planet. They play poorly and nobody really sees and hears about it. But the weird case was I was playing one of my best golf and I couldn't take the club back. And the whole world saw me do it, so, believe me, I hear enough about it.

Q. How do you explain that? Because the yips are like you said, usually synonymous with playing poorly. How do you explain how you were playing really well, even with the yips?
KEVIN NA: I don't know. How does a guy not take the club back every time he hits it and it goes down the middle? I don't know. Do you want to open up my brain and check it out? I don't know. (Laughter.) I try not to think too much about it. I got over it. So, just kind of keep going, keep going and keep doing what you're doing.

Q. How did you get over it? What did you learn from that situation?
KEVIN NA: It went away, not all at once. It took time. But I tried to -- at the time, I was working with Dale Lynch. Right now I work with a guy named Don Brown. So we try to instead of so much thinking about swing, and what over the ball, and a lot of it because my balance point changed with him. We were trying to put more forward on our toes, swing was trying to get more upright, and everything changed. And my balance point in my swing totally changed, and I was my body wasn't adjusting. And so I can't give you an exact answer how I fixed it, but what we tried to do was we tried to feel the shot from the target in, if you understand what I'm saying, instead of the ball forward. I know that's kind of weird but that's what he told me. He says try to feel the shot. Like if you're in the trees and you see a hole, you see an opening and you're trying to feel that opening and you hit the shot, instead of trying to manufacture something here. So that's what he tried to get me to do, and it helped.

Q. When would you say you were cured or when did you fix it?
KEVIN NA: I still have five percent left in me. That's just a random number. But I still have five percent left of that in me.

Q. When did you feel like you were over it?
KEVIN NA: You know, I don't know. You're going to have to make me think too much, so I'm not going to.

Q. Given overcoming that and the highly publicized hole you had a few years back, too --
KEVIN NA: Yeah, seems like those two things are never going to leave me.

Q. -- how gratifying is it to get to this point where you're ranked as highly as you are and leading this tournament at this point?
KEVIN NA: Yeah, you know, I'm not embarrassed of any of the things that happened to me. A 16? I mean an average golfer, it happens to them on a daily basis. It just I happened to do it and I'm a TOUR player. I thought I played great the rest of the round. I think I have a great story there. A lot of people can -- pro-am partners, they come up to me and they kind of feel me out if they think they can bring that story up or not, and I'm cool about it. I say, hey, you know, I tell them exactly what happened, I hit myself in there and all this stuff and they get a kick out of it. Having the yips, I think because I went through that, I'm a better player now. I hope people get over that and see me as just a guy that's playing well on TOUR versus a guy that couldn't take the club back. I really hope that one day I keep playing well, keep winning golf tournaments, and they talk about my wins and they talk about my good play.

Q. Sort of jumping off of that, it's funny to be known for two sort of odd things like that. Do you think it's going to take a win in a tournament that's really, really big like this one?
KEVIN NA: Like this one.

Q. Or a major something like that, to get people to associate you with something else besides those two weird things?
KEVIN NA: Yes, I believe so. Or make the Presidents Cup team. I consider that one of the I think one of the most -- if I do make the Presidents Cup, it would be one of the biggest things I've done in my career and I'm working hard for that. But back to what you said, yes, I think if I win a PLAYERS Championship or a Major, I think people would maybe get over it. (Laughter.) It's like I got the Men In Black; I got to have a little light (makes noise). (Laughter.)

Q. Along the Presidents Cup lines, I remember you and I talked last year about the Ryder Cup and how hard you were playing to make that team. Is this year even a little bit more special because it's in Korea?
KEVIN NA: Yes, definitely. Obviously I'm playing for the U.S. team, but that's where my parents are from and that's my background, my heritage, me being a Korean-American. I think it would be very special for me to being make any Presidents Cup team, but more so this year.

Q. When you say you're working towards that as a goal, what are you doing to try to accomplish that that you weren't already doing?
KEVIN NA: Well, the only thing you can do is just go out there and play your best. But I do look at that ranking system, and I'm -- just another goal to have. Just another goal to have in your little goals to do, maybe a vision board or whatever you want to call it -- I don't have one, but -- a mental vision board. Something you want. I think if you put something in your mind that you really want and you work hard towards it, you're going to achieve those goals. So that's one of my goals this year is to make the Presidents Cup team. And unfortunately, you got to play more tournaments to get these points, FedExCup points, but I got to keep my schedule, and if I keep playing more, the last thing I want to do is hurt my back again. But if I keep showing that every tournament I tee it up I keep top-10 or win a golf tournament and show consistency, I think that I can make the team, or look good to Jay Haas and he can pick me.

THE MODERATOR: Great, thanks everyone.

KEVIN NA: Thank you.
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