There's Na Heckling In Ponte Vedra!

From Doug Ferguson's game story:

Already struggling with a pre-shot routine of practice swings, waggles and a few intentional whiffs so he could start over, Na heard it from the fans who heckled him with chants of "Pull the trigger!" and "Hit it!" He lost the lead for good with four bogeys in a five-hole stretch to finish the front nine, and when he hit his tee shot in the water on the par-3 13th, fans serenaded him with, "Na-na-na-na ... good-bye."

He closed with a 76, keeping a peculiar record intact -- since The Players moved from March to May in 2007, the 54-hole leader has not shot better than 74 in the final round, with an average score of 76.3.

"I backed off and they're booing me," Na said. "I said, 'Look, guys, I backed off because of you guys.' ... But it is what it is. I also felt that a lot of people were turning towards me and pulling for me, which I really appreciate.

Randall Mell on the hecklers and also how eventual winner Matt Kuchar attacked the issue of playing with a player engaging in bizarro conduct:

While Na, 28, has won over a share of sympathetic fans who admire how he is owning up to his troubles, his neurotic pre-shot routine is brutal to watch. Even Na hates it. You can hear him chewing himself out when he’s unable to pull the trigger.

“I had people say try not to watch him,” Kuchar said. “It’s like trying not to look at the leaderboard. You have to kind of watch Kevin, and there’s some audio included. So, even if you’re not watching, you can hear it. I could have plugged my ears and closed my eyes, maybe. That could have been a game plan. But I knew that sort of thing wasn’t going to get the best of me.”

Bob Verdi says a majority sympathize with Na's plight.

What Na probably doesn't want to hear is the proposition that thousands of spectators among a smattering of impolite deep throats identified with him. He talks to the ball, converses with himself, even apologizes to playing companions. When flogging away at this confounding game, haven't we all uttered the refrain, "Sorry, partner"? How many times have we squeezed the grip and steered it with a prayer? And when Na begged in vain for a five-footer to drop for par on No. 6 -- minutes after a bogey on No. 5, his first since Friday -- it was as though our knees knocked along with his.

Impolite? And here I was thinking more time than the rules allow and doing it in weird fashion was impolite!

This quote from the Verdi story was telling:

"I'm trying," Na said again after Sunday's disappointment. "And now, I'm going to try to eliminate my waggle, the whole waggle. I've been making changes to my swing over a year or so, and now I have to change this. The average golfer has no idea how tough it is mentally, but my main thought today was to move faster and not hold up Matt. Did I overdo it? Probably. But I hung in there, I appreciate the people who were behind me, and I take a lot of positives out of this, despite not winning."

Did I "overdo" it? I thought this was borderline unconscious stuff here that was out of his control?

Ryan Lavner explains that Na's game went south when he tried to play faster, which would seem to confirm that taking longer than the rules allow was to his advantage.

On the ninth hole, as he stood over his tee shot, finally ready to go, Na heard several fans yell, “Pull the trigger! Pull the trigger! Hit it!” Na backed off, shaken. The fans promptly booed. He went on to bogey the hole, one of four dropped shots on his opening nine.

What those boneheaded fans didn’t realize was that Na was trying to speed up his play. Probably too much, in fact.

“My main thought was trying to play fast,” Na conceded. “I know the whole world is watching. I was 40 yards ahead of Matt (Kuchar) basically trying to sprint out to my ball so I can get extra time.”

And in the best move he made all week, Tiger said the current slow play rules are pure nonsense. Ryan Ballengee shares Tiger's post round remarks:

"I think it's very simple," he said. "If you get a warning, you get a penalty. I think that would speed it up."

And John Strege sums up why the PGA Tour turning a blind eye to slow play fittingly blew up at The Players.

But what does it say for the PGA Tour that the long-standing issue of slow play has become a joke and a distraction at its most prestigious event? Indeed, how many viewers made it point to tune in early just to see how Na would respond with a one-stroke lead on the first tee?

The final pairing of Na and Kuchar, at least, was a good one for everyone involved. The rest of those on the leaderboard were spared having to play alongside Na for more than five hours, while Kuchar's perpetually sunny disposition is impenetrable.

Kuchar proved a popular winner who helped salvage a tournament that otherwise might have been savaged.