Kevin Na withdrew from the Masters Thursday morning following the completion of his first nine holes.
Na and Mike Weir were in the first group out, but Na experienced an inauspicious start at Augusta National with a double-bogey at the first, and though he birdied the second, things did not improve—bogeying three of his next four holes. Na made the turn in 40 strokes before pulling out with an undisclosed illness. Throughout Thursday morning Na appeared to be in discomfort.
At the time of his WD, Na was last on the scoreboard. This was his 12th start at the Masters, and he had finished inside the top 15 in his past three Masters appearances.
Na entered his way into this year’s Masters field as one of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2022. He was one of 18 LIV Golf members in this week’s field.
Mike Weir, who was playing with Na, will finish his round as a single.
Will Zalatoris, who finished second to Hideki Matsuyama at the 2021 Masters and tied sixth last year, also withdrew injured. Zalatoris has a history of back injuries which saw him miss 100 days of golf last day.
Few golfers have ever had the Masters experience Mike Weir had on Thursday
After having the back nine all to himself on Thursday, Mike Weir couldn’t remember the last time he played as a single. One thing’s for sure, it wasn’t at the Masters.
Thanks to an unusual confluence of events, the 2003 Masters champ played half his opening round without a playing partner. With 88 golfers in the field, Weir began the day as one of two twosomes the first two rounds. He ended it as a rare solo.
Weir teed off with Kevin Na, but with the LIV golfer withdrew after nine holes. The five-time PGA Tour winner gave no official reason, although he indicated to Weir that he wasn’t feeling well earlier in the round.
“I think he just said, ‘I’m done,'” Weir said. “And handed me his card and away he went.”
And away Weir and his caddie headed toward the 10th tee. After making the turn at one under, Weir bogeyed 10 and 11, but bounced back with birdies at 12 and 15. He bogeyed 16, but parred his final two holes to post an even-par 72.
“I told my caddie I didn’t want to overthink and be too slow,” Weir said. “You kind of get in a routine and you don’t want to take too much time and overthink things. So obviously, I think it took me a couple holes to settle that down. On 10, 11, I got a little out of sorts on 10, 11 and then kind of settled it back down.”
Weir said playing solo was “strange,” but he also enjoyed himself during his particularly peaceful stroll. Heck, being first out by yourself at Augusta National sounds pretty darn sweet. Plus, you don’t have to worry about forcing any small talk.
“I think that’s the biggest thing is just getting the pace right of your walk and not kind of getting too caught up in my own game and just kind of having a laugh with my caddie and just kind of enjoying it,” Weir added. “That’s the approach I look. Let’s just enjoy this back nine. It’s beautiful out here.”
It’s an approach that worked well as the 52-year-old put himself in great position to play the weekend, something he’s only done once since 2014.
“Obviously I want to play well and make the cut,” Weir said. “The last couple years I’ve been close and haven’t had my sharpest short game, I felt like. I missed the cut by one and then two last year, the last two years. I felt like I let those tournaments get away, so to speak. I felt I didn’t take advantage of how well I played, and today is a step in the right direction.”
What made playing solo so rare at the Masters is Augusta National’s longstanding practice of putting a playing marker out with golfers to avoid anyone playing by himself. The club usually doesn’t have to do that until the weekend, and member Jeff Knox—a legend on Golf Twitter—has filled that role admirably for the past couple decades.
Sadly, the Augusta Chronicle reported Knox, 60, was relieved of his duties last year. Although we didn’t get confirmation of that when an even number of players made the cut. But Weir expects company when he tees it up Friday afternoon—he’s just not sure who it will be.
“I just heard today they might, you know a marker looks like that’s probably what’s going to happen, but they might move somebody in the field with me, too,” Weir said. “So yeah, it will be a little different, but we’ll have a good time whoever we’re playing with and just kind of make the most of it and try to get in the same rhythm that I had today. I’ll try not to think too much about it.”
