Wyndham Championship
Matt Kuchar's bizarre one-man Monday finish at the Wyndham is only more perplexing a day later
David Jensen
With darkness descending on the Wyndham Championship Sunday, a few things were crystal clear. First, Matt Kuchar's streak of 17 straight FedEx Cup playoff appearances was at an end. The 46-year-old had reached golf's postseason every year it was held, dating back to 2007, and coming into the Wyndham, it seemed impossible that he could keep the streak going; nothing but a win would give him the points he needed. But to Kuchar's credit, he gave it a go. On a marathon Sunday, where everyone had to play 36 holes and some at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., like Kuchar, played a handful more, he was close to the lead. As the day went on, however, Kuchar faded, and by 8:20 p.m. local time, in a tie for 12th, he no longer had a chance to win. His playing partner Max Greyserman, however, had a great chance; he established a four-shot lead with an eagle on 13, and even after a disastrous quadruple bogey on 14 and another double on 16, he came into the 18th trailing Aaron Rai by just a shot.
That's when things got weird.
With Rai and his playing partners still in the fairway waiting to hit their approach shots, and the last remnants of light fading, Kuchar teed up and hit his drive. His shot drifted into the left rough, which was fortunate because otherwise it may have landed in Rai's vicinity. Greyserman and Chad Ramey waited to hit their drives until the fairway was clear, Rai went on to make the tournament-winning birdie with Greyserman watching in the fairway, and then it got even weirder: Dottie Pepper reported that Kuchar "won't play any more golf today."
He had marked his ball in the left rough, picked it up and opted to finish his round in the morning. Here's how he explained that decision to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, as relayed on air:
“I was trying to set an example for Max,” Kuchar was quoted as saying. “We were so far past when we should’ve stopped playing [given the light]. We saw what Max did on hole 16; they should’ve blown the horn there. I feel bad, the poor kid should’ve won this tournament. By me not playing, it may show Max he has an important shot to hit.”
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There is some logic to that statement, but only some—as Brandel Chamblee pointed out on Golf Central moments later, it didn't seem to mesh with Kuchar's decision to rush his tee shot, which might have been designed to ensure they would get to play the last hole. (No horn was ever blown—a rules official explained to them that it was past sunset, and they had the option to stop.) And as Chambel’s colleague, Paige Mackenzie, noted that Greyserman, though a tour rookie, is still 29-years-old and capable of making his own decision.
As it happened, Greyserman had no intention of waiting to play his approach (it's unclear if Rai's birdie may have had some influence on that), and both he and Ramey finished. That means Kuchar returned Monday morning alone among the 67 players who made the cut to finish his round. There were financial stakes involved; with a par, Kuchar stood to earn $134,695, while a bogey would reduce his payday to just over $77,000. In the unlikely event he made birdie on the tough 18th, that total would have risen to $223,000.
Still, the inconsistent behavior on 18 remains a mystery.
“I don’t expect we’re going to be bringing you that coverage tomorrow," Nantz joked on the CBS broadcast, and indeed, TV did not return for the morning.
Kuchar resumed play at 8 a.m. ET and made his par to finish in a tie for 12th. That did allow Kuchar to move up 10 spots to 103rd on the FedEx Cup points list, which could turn out to be critical later in the fall as Kuchar tries to make sure he stays within the top 125 and retains his fully exempt tour card.
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Update 10:20 a.m.
Kuchar's remarks after his Monday round are now available, and they shed at least some light on his through process Sunday evening.
"Listen, nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn't finish," he said, striking a conciliatory tone. "I can't tell you how many times I have been finished with a round thinking, bummed out that somebody didn't finish, that we didn't get to make the cut because somebody didn't finish. Here it's me now as the guy that didn't get to finish the tournament."
He apologized to the tournament and to everyone who had to return on Monday for his finish, and then elaborated on what went through his mind the night before.
"But last night," he said, "last night was dark. I mean, we had texts that Round 1 was suspended at 8:15, Round 2 was suspended at 8:25. That was to make the cut, so they pushed it even longer. Last night Round 4 was suspended at 8:40, like it was dark. I think had I been in the fairway with a normal shot, I probably would have attempted to finish, but I had just seen Max four-putt the 16th hole. If there was daylight on that green, does he four-putt? I don't know, I don't know."
He went on to say that he had missed a five-footer on 13 with the green covered in shade, and that his personal rule of thumb is that if you can hit a tee shot in the near-darkness, and ditto for a "reasonable approach," but that you never putt if you need to make it.
"I did not realize Aaron Rai made birdie on the last," he continued, "so I'm over on 10 trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I'm figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament. I thought Max for sure had a shot to win and I thought no way in this situation do you hit this shot, you come back in the morning 100 percent of the time. So I said, well, Max will stop, I'll stop, kind of make it easy on him."
That starts to make more sense—the idea that he wouldn't be the only player to return in the morning, and that he might take some heat off Greyserman in the process. So he made his decision, but then of course Rai's birdie changed everything, essentially eliminating the chance that Greyserman could win, and giving him very little incentive not to finish. Which, in turn, left Kuchar as the odd man out.
Kuchar also explained why he hit his drive on 18 with players in the fairway.
"Clearly, clearly I was not hitting to hit just to push," he said. "I thought—I was on the tee, there was a guy in pink walking on the green. I assumed it was Billy Horschel. There was a pink shirt walking on the back of the green, I assumed they were already up there and they were not."
If there's any consolation for Kuchar, it's that he's avoiding much of the negative online reaction he's stirred up.
"Thankfully, I avoid that stuff," he said. "I did get a call from my agent, said ‘hey, you're causing quite a stir,’ so that was the little I heard. I'm grateful to not be a part of the social media thing."