A 16 on a Par 4? Hackers Laugh and Cry With a Humbled Pro
By BILL PENNINGTON
Published: April 15, 2011

* Recommend
* Twitter
* comments
* Sign In to E-Mail
* Print
*
Reprints
* ShareClose
o Linkedin
o Digg
o Mixx
o MySpace
o Permalink
o

Kevin Na, a little-known professional golfer, chased his ball into some woods and brambles Thursday during a PGA Tour event in Texas. About five minutes and 16 frenzied, desperate and comical strokes later, he emerged a folk hero.
Enlarge This Image
Eric Gay/Associated Press

Maybe it was an omen: Kevin Na had this lie on No. 8 in the first round of the Texas Open. On the next hole, disaster struck.
Video YouTube: Kevin Na Takes a Shot...and Another...
Related

*
Subpar 4: Tour Pro Needs 16 Strokes to Finish Hole (April 15, 2011)

Enlarge This Image
Eric Gay/Associated Press

Kevin Na after one of his drives on the ninth hole.
Readers' Comments

Share your thoughts.

* Post a Comment »

Na, 27, an American who grew up in South Korea, took his 16 shots without losing his ball, hitting it in a hazard or breaking a club over his knee. He walked off the par-4 ninth hole at the Texas Open in San Antonio plucking thorns and barbs from his arms and legs as his caddie brushed leaves and dirt off his back and shoulders.

On Friday, Everyman golfers rejoiced.

“That’s great; welcome to our world,” Tom Magazeno said as prepared to tee off at Black Bear Golf Course, a public course in Franklin, N.J. “A real golfer never gives up and a real golfer counts every stroke. He is a hero.”

Playing behind Magazeno, Mike White of Verona, N.J., predicted that Na’s golfing calamity would become a YouTube sensation.

“It’s good for golf,” he said. “It’s a pro golfer with integrity. That must have cost him a lot of money and he had to be embarrassed, but he pressed on. Good for him.”

Most amateur golfers would have picked up their ball. Some might have played on. Few would have known to count their penalty strokes. Fewer still would have written “16” on their scorecard: A what? Double quadruple bogey?

“I’ve seen guys shoot a 16 on one hole, but I’ve never seen someone write 16 down,” said Bill Hindon of Ringwood, N.J., sitting in a cart alongside the first hole at Black Bear.

Adam Donlin, the PGA pro at Black Bear, said that in his 12-year career working at courses, which has included supervising hundreds of golf outings and tournaments, he had never seen a 16 on any hole of any scorecard.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more than a 12,” Donlin said. “I mean, a 16? Kevin Na is immortal for that.”

The social-media popularity of Na’s misadventure will be enhanced by the distinctive setting of his escapade. Showing him ducking and tromping through an almost impenetrable thicket of vines, scrub bush and trees, the video — all 16 strokes were captured — looks like a Golf Channel presentation of “Animal Planet.”

All the while, because Na had agreed to wear a wireless microphone during the round, he and his caddie narrate the ruinous set of events as they unfold.

“You’ve got nothing — nothing!” the caddie, Kenny Harms, says early on, weaving through the overgrowth.

“Oh, come on!” Na shouts as his 11th shot caroms off a tree and almost hits him.

The Golf Channel broadcasters watching added to the sense of comedy.

“We could be here awhile,” one said as Na pursued his ball deeper into the forest.

Laughter can be heard in the background at times and fans give Na a hearty round of applause when his 13th shot finally — and barely — flies out of the woods.

Na’s troubles began when he hit his tee shot into the woods well right of the fairway. When he found his ball, he declared it unplayable. But back on the tee, Na hit what counted as his third shot into roughly the same place.

Na tried chipping out from the heavy brush. That shot hit a tree and struck him in the right leg, a one-stroke penalty.

Na declared another unplayable lie and asked a rules official who had burrowed into the woods after him if he could go back to the tee. That was no longer an option. He could drop in the woods.

Na turned to his caddie and said, “Kenny, just give me a ball.”

He took the ball and dropped it, then struck another shot that barely moved.

A lightning-quick series of swings ensued, so quick that officials later had to examine the videotape to ascertain how many times Na hit the ball. One shot went sideways, another went backward. Na, normally right-handed, swung once left-handed and missed, then swung again left-handed and made contact, but the ball did not go far. There were a couple of other off-balance swats until finally he lifted a shot just over a tree branch. The ball settled into the rough.

From there, Na hit a shot to the back fringe of the ninth green. Two putts later, he had played the ninth in 12 over par.

At courses across the New York metropolitan region, it was difficult to find golfers who were not astonished by Na’s travails. But many could recall playing similarly disastrous holes.

“I relived it,” Rodney Stilwell, 53 and a lawyer, said from the clubhouse at Silver Lake Golf Course on Staten Island.

Three years ago, playing in a tournament at Silver Lake, Stilwell hit a shot that landed half-submerged in water on No. 15.

“I tried and tried to hit it out,” Stilwell said. “There was a lot of splashing.”

Stilwell said that one thought kept coming back: He should have gone back to the tee and hit again. He could almost hear those same words inside Na’s head.

“It was the same thing,” Stilwell said. “I was laughing inside, and you could see on TV Kevin was laughing outside.”

On most days, recreational golfers would be encouraged to pick up after a double par, or eight strokes on a par 4.

“Oh, yeah, after seven or eight strokes I’d give up,” Magazeno said at Black Bear.

Tony Candelmo, playing at Byrne Golf Course in West Orange, N.J., agreed.

“Whenever I got a real, real bad hole like that, I just picked up my ball and moved onto the next one,” he said.

David Gutfeld of Suffern, N.Y., laughed when he said that sometimes his friends “might enjoy seeing me suffer.”

“That’s the thing about a pro making a 16,” Gutfeld said. “We’ve all been there. We’ve been there many times, my friend.”

Jim McLean, a teacher to top PGA Tour pros who is frequently ranked among the top five golf instructors in America, said there were lessons for the recreational golfer in Na’s episode.

“There comes a point when you just snap and start whaling away like Bill Murray in ‘Caddyshack’ or something,” McLean said. “But that usually can be avoided if you slow yourself down. Take a walk away from the ball and gather your thoughts.

“I guess this proves even top pros can get disoriented. It’s pretty impressive, though, that he finished the round strong.”

Na went on to make three birdies and no bogeys on the back nine and shoot an 80, which means he was four under par Thursday if the ninth hole was excluded.

When asked to elaborate on his day, he sounded like any other golfer.

“It was really just one bad shot,” he told reporters. “Well, two, actually. But that’s what started the whole thing. It kind of gets out of hand. That’s what happens in this crazy game.”

A legion of empathetic golfers, many of them now Kevin Na fans, were nodding their heads.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 16, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.