Kuchar Brings Out Smiles
Staying In Memorial Hunt
DUBLIN, Ohio – What makes Matt Kuchar smile?Well, just about everything. The guy’s practically always smiling -- and what’s not to smile about when a guy can save par out of the water on a par-5 that taxes the skill and imagination, to say nothing of the strength and threatens the composure.
Which is what Kuchar did at Muirfield Villages’s 11th Saturday, scratching out a 4-under-par 68 after threatening to be at least the No. 2 runaway of the day. The No. 1 runaway was going to be Steve Stricker, who turned two quick eagles into a cooled-off 69 and kept his lead at three going into the final round.
Kuchar carries an asterisk as perpetual as his smile – the amateur who once led the Masters as a kid. Now 32 and a lanky 6-foot-4, he brought all the charm and enthusiasm with him, growing up. Pressed to offer whether there are any similarities between him and the unassuming Stricker, he, of course, smiled. Stricker being the guy who went dark for years before resurfacing as a world-class golfer these few years ago.
“Yeah,” Kuchar said. “I had Jim Furyk tell me a couple weeks ago, after I snuck another top-10, ‘You know, another 10 more years like this and you’ll be the Steve Stricker of the tour.’ I said I wouldn’t mind that very much at all. Strick is just a solid golfer every week.
“A couple years ago, that would have been the guy I’d say I’d like to play a game like his. I’m not going to overpower courses. But Stricker seems every week to be up there, whether he’s leading the tournament or seems to just always be in contention.”
The he reached his point of departure, it would seem, with most aspiring modern golfers.
“I don’t want to be a golfer who is contention four times a year and missed 10 cuts a year,” Kuchar said. “I wanted to be the guy who was in contention all the time, didn’t miss cuts. Just a steady player.”
Sure enough. Last year, he lived in the top-10, won once, and led the money list with nearly $5 million.
Sometimes it’s not just birdies, although he was feasting for a while, going six under with seven birdies and a bogey through the first 10 holes. Sometimes, then, it’s hanging on by one’s fingernails, and this was the case for Kuchar at the par-5 11th, 567 yards with a little stream running down the left side, then across the fairway and down the right, giving the golfer every opportunity for disaster. He drove into the fairway, then trying to lay up, caught the little creek on the right side. He dropped, and from an awkward position, lobbed a nifty 100-yard wedge to 6 feet, and holed the putt for his par.
“I thought that was a great save,” Kuchar said. He got no arguments.
The par-5 15th wasn’t as simple. He knocked his third over the green and bogeyed. Then came the 18th.
“I hit two good shots into 18,” Kuchar said. “Just went over the green, and that’s a bad place to be. There’s not too many good places to be on 18. Short is terrible, long is almost as bad – maybe worse.”
In this case, worse. He chipped badly from thick rough and two-putted from 8 feet for the bogey that dropped him into a tie for third.
Kuchar could consider his performance, savoring the joys of prudent golf, all the while admiring the free-wheeling game of Phil Mickelson. He was reminded of a Memorial a couple years ago, paired with Mickelson when he was seven off the lead. “I watched him go for absolutely everything, and it was fun to watch,” Kuchar said. “He wasn’t going to be satisfied with second place. I mean, he thought he could win, and he actually got himself into contention. I mean, he made a boatload of birdies. It was entertaining to watch.
“It was then it opened my eyes that there are a handful of guys that that’s all they care about, is winning golf tournaments. I can’t attack everywhere. I think there’s appropriate shots for situations, shots that I can pull off and I can’t pull off.
“I don’t have the game that Phil Mickelson has.”
True. And at the moment, Phil Mickelson doesn’t have the score that Matt Kuchar has.
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