{"id":503208,"date":"2026-02-25T13:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503208\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:27:09","slug":"kevin-na-has-found-his-happy-place-in-queenstown-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/503208\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Na has found his happy place in Queenstown \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Photo: PhotoSport NZ]<\/p>\n<p>Five-time PGA Tour Kevin Na is starting a new chapter of his professional career this week in a place he has quickly fallen in love with.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/complete-guide-to-the-2026-new-zealand-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Complete guide to the 2026 New Zealand Open<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 42-year-old is one of the main, and most intriguing, attractions at this year\u2019s New Zealand Open presented by Millbrook Resort after finishing up with LIV Golf at the end of its 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>For the first time since beginning his professional career as Rookie of the Year on the Asian Tour in 2002, Na doesn\u2019t have a permanent golf home in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s come to New Zealand for the first time with a prime goal of having some fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be that kid again that when you first start playing and you travel to different parts of the world, any tournament you get into you\u2019re excited to tee it up and maybe when you do this for a long time, sometimes that fades away, but I know it\u2019s still there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited this week. I think I want to find that bubble, that bubbly and exciting feeling again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis place is amazing. It\u2019s beautiful. The golf course is great. I\u2019m really enjoying myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With no major championships on his schedule yet for 2026, Na is keenly aware that a place at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale awaits the winner at Millbrook on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to have a chance at that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGame\u2019s feeling well. I haven\u2019t played in a while, but I feel like my game\u2019s feeling pretty good. I\u2019ve got a great partner this week, so I\u2019m looking forward to having some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/kevin-na-daring-below-the-belt-trick-shot-danny-lee-liv-golf-rain-delay-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Na pulls off daring below-the-belt trick shot involving Danny Lee during rain delay<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And with his schedule open, don\u2019t discount seeing more of Na in this part of the world more often.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I want to play parts of the world that I want to go to and some of the events that are cool events. This was one of them. This was a no-brainer for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnd of the year, I think Australia has some great events \u2013 Australian PGA and Australian Open, definitely interested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing able to travel different parts of the world that you want to see and, at the same time play some golf, I think is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: PhotoSport NZ] Five-time PGA Tour Kevin Na is starting a new chapter of his professional career this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[121913,64,63,755,146406,246276,175343,175344,163416,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-503208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-asian-tour","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-japan-golf-tour","13":"tag-kevin-na","14":"tag-millbrook-resort","15":"tag-new-zealand-open","16":"tag-pga-tour-of-australasia","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}