News & Tours
Players 2022: Kevin Na WDs with wife set to give birth
Cliff Hawkins
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Kevin Na withdrew from the Players Championship on Monday. And withdrew with good reason.
Shortly after the PGA Tour announced Na had dropped from the field at TPC Sawgrass the five-time tour winner took to Twitter Monday afternoon to clarify his absence.
“I decided to WD from the the Players Championship we are expecting our 3rd child this week!” Na wrote.
Na had made 14 previous appearances at the Players Championship, his best finish a T-3 in 2009. His outing last year might have been his most memorable, however: Na recorded a quintuple-bogey 8 at the infamous 17th when his first three attempts at the island green found the water. Na would ultimately bow out of the event with a bad back.
Na, 38, has played just six events this season and is currently 149th in the FedEx Cup. However he is exempt through the 2023-’24 campaign with wins in each of the last four seasons.
Replacing Na in the field is Taylor Moore, who will be making his Players Championship debut. Moore is in his first full season on tour and enters the week 68th in the FedEx Cup standings. Moore was originally in the field when it was first announced on Friday afternoon, but moved back to first alternate when Henrik Stenson was added late on Friday. He dropped to second alternate on Sunday when Ryan Brehm earned an 11th hour spot in the field with his win in Puerto Rico, knocking Hayden Buckley out. But Buckley got back in when Bryson DeChambeau withdrew on Sunday night.
Patrick Rodgers is now the first alternate.
UPDATE, Tuesday, 12:30 p.m.—Na and his wife welcomed their third child on Monday.