While Patrick Cantlay was the one who held up the hardware Sunday at East Lake, Kevin Na tied Jon Rahm for the lowest score, 14 under, at this year’s Tour Championship.
And in case Na’s performance this week – where he finished out the tournament with 57 straight bogey-free holes – gets overlooked by U.S. Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker, he’ll take matters into his own hands.
“I’m definitely going to probably text Captain Stricker,” Na said following his final round at East Lake. “I haven’t texted him but I’m going to text him and see what he thinks. I feel like I should be a big consideration for a [captain’s] pick.”
Full-field scores from the Tour Championship
Na finished third behind Cantlay and Rahm at the Tour Championship but with the strokes-based format, Na made up the most ground in the 30-player field after starting at 2 under, where Rahm started at 6 under and Cantlay at 10 under.
But while the 37-year-old was rising up the leaderboard, he had a certain goal, which he said is second on his career dreams list behind a major championship win, in the back of his mind.
“I was trying to win that secret leaderboard, where everybody started from even par, to get Captain Stricker’s attention, so I could get a captain’s pick.”
If this was pre-2019, Na would have headed to a playoff with Rahm. Last year, Xander Schauffele was runner-up to Dustin Johnson at the Tour Championship but would have won outright by three strokes if not for the staggered-start format. But the OGWR still credited Schauffele with first-place points and will do so this year for Na and Rahm.
However, trophy or not, Na’s recent performances may have given him a chance to receive one of Team USA’s remaining captain’s picks that’s up for grabs for the Ryder Cup later this month.
“Look, I did the best I could,” he said. “I have two runner-up finishes in the last six starts, another Top-10 at a playoff event and maybe win or second here. So I mean, from where I started to finish third in the FedExCup, eight shots back, I think I’m looking strong for a pick.”
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