Significant message is Kevin sent

I LAUGH when I hear people claim modern golf technology is the secret to success.

If a golfer is misfiring, the textbook response is to fixate on his form and clubs. It’s nonsense.

You need talent, of course, but external matters very often hold the key.

Just look at Kevin Na’s emotional interview after winning last week’s Shriners Open.

The reason? A broken engagement with a South Korean woman dating back to 2014 and the damaging fall-out in a culture that frowns upon such actions.

Na, who tees it up at the CJ Cup in Korea this week, spoke out to address “hurtful” rumours in the land of his birth and to protect his name and young family.

It fascinates me how we never judge golfers as human beings burdened by fault or frailty.

They are never conflicted individuals creaking under financial pressures, wrestling with corrosive relationships, personal issues, substance abuse or everyday hardships.

To the watching world, these golfers are machines and fair game for any and all criticism on the weeks they struggle to perform.

Na is not a unique case here. James Morrison also spoke candidly in August on how he has benefited from prioritising family life above the peaks and troughs of his career.

Golfers spend much of their lives acting like choreographed commodities, when maybe if they were more accepting of themselves they’d be in a better place.

It is often said the golf course is your greatest sanctuary – but leaving the trials and anguish of real life at the gate is sometimes the hardest task of all.

Na has now won three events in the past 15 months.

Credit to him for confronting and overcoming the white noise of wider life and prospering as a result.

DELIGHT Kevin Na celebrates victory with his daughter