Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
 |
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
News
|
||||
|
When the dust settled at The Players Championship over the weekend, champion Henrik Stenson had cleared the field by four strokes. Still, a pair of Southern Californians, John Mallinger and Kevin Na, played solid golf the whole week on TPC at Sawgrass and finished at seven-under par, tied for third place and five shots behind Stenson. “I was … right there until the end,” said Na, who grew up in Diamond Bar. “You’ve got to chip and putt well out here, and that’s just my game.” When the 25-year-old Na made the turn in Saturday’s third round, he was only a shot behind leader Alex Cejka. But Na endured a rollercoaster ride down the stretch, posting four bogeys, a triple-bogey, a birdie and an eagle on the 16th hole en route to a two-over-par 74. Another eagle on No. 16 Sunday vaulted Na firmly inside the top five. Mallinger, paired with Na in the final round, also took advantage of the short par-5 16th all week by making birdie on it every round. The Escondido native and Long Beach resident putted well, posting less than 30 putts each round and tying for ninth in the field in putts per green in regulation. “For some reason I can’t get off these third-place finishes,” said Mallinger, who now has six career second-runner-ups in 75 PGA Tour starts — though none has come in an event with the stature of The Players. “When you’re playing against a field like this, you’re playing against the best players in the world. When you compete at that level and you perform well and you execute coming down, I think that’s the big thing.” Neither Na nor Mallinger have won on the PGA Tour, but they continue to knock on the door of victory No. 1. Na now has five top-10 finishes this season and has amassed a personal-best $1.7 million in earnings, while Mallinger is close to eclipsing the $1 million mark. “I think after this week guys are going to keep more eyes on us,” Na said of himself and Mallinger. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
