Matt Kuchar: "I want to apologize, i knew it"

08/13/2024 09:53 PM

Matt Kuchar was not happy Sunday night about having to play his last holes of the Wyndham Championship in the dark. He said it loud and clear and above all, he refused to finish the tournament when he only had half a hole left to play, forcing volunteers, referees and organizers to come back on Monday morning just for him.

Already often at the center of controversies in the past, Matt Kuchar did not make friends in North Carolina Sunday night. And especially Monday morning.

The man who had been accused of stinginess during his victory at the Mayakoba Classic in 2019 (he had initially paid $5,000 to his local caddie after winning $1.3 million) therefore refused to finish his tournament when he only had half a hole left to play.

Which forced a good number of staff to come back the next morning to allow him to play the last half hole of his tournament. While the Floridian had little left to play for since he was out of the running for victory and qualification for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

His playing partners, Max Greyeserman and Chad Ramey, had finished Sunday evening, even if the light was scarce, since the Wyndham Championship had seen its program disrupted by bad weather.

The 46-year-old player finally saved par on Monday morning on this 72nd hole, which allowed him to obtain a 12th place. Insufficient, as we already knew, for him to avoid missing the FedEc Cup playoffs for the first time in 17 years, but which earned him $144,965.

This “star” whim is not without consequences on the tournament’s finances and on the schedules of many volunteers. Kuchar, whose attitude seemed to be driven by anger and a desire to stigmatize the slowness of the eventual winner Aaron Rai since he had first rushed to hit his drive on the 72nd hole to finish on time, apologized the next day.

“No one would have wanted to be in my place, to be the one who is the only one not to finish the tournament,” he said. “But last night, the darkness was there. What I wanted was to avoid a double bogey (he had driven into the woods and ended up very far from the green). I hope that did not cause too many problems. I know the ramifications of my decision, the consequences. So I want to apologize.”

Apologies that will probably be hard to accept with the organizers that Kuchar had strongly criticized, considering that Max Greyserman's breakdown that gave Rai the victory was the consequence of the lack of light, while the player himself had not complained about it.

A priori, the player does not risk any sanction. But his reputation, already damaged by an old refereeing incident between him and Sergio Garcia, is not going to improve.