PGA / Chris Ryan / 06 October 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Quick, name the player who won the U.S. Amateur the first year (1997) after Tiger Woods completed his trifecta dominanation of the event (winning in 1994, '95 and '96). Answer: Matt Kuchar, writes Brian Heard.

Now, name the highly decorated amateur, who initially spurned a pro career after graduating from college to take a job in finance. Answer: Matt Kuchar.

You see where this is headed, right? Name the winner of last week's PGA Tour stop, the Turning Stone Resort Championship in upstate New York, after a 7-1/2-year hiatus from the champions circle. Answer: Yep, Matt Kuchar.

The lanky, 6-foot-4, Floridian with the ceaseless smile creasing his lips had to work overtime to do it - though the $1.08-million winner's check probably covers any additional inconveniences he might have endured - finally defeating Vaughn Taylor (the two had tied at 17-under after 72 holes) in a marathon six-hole playoff, which had to be continued on Monday morning after the pair ran out of daylight on Sunday following the first two playoff holes.

"It's hard to describe what a great feeling it is to win a PGA Tour event," Kuchar said Monday. "It's so difficult to win. For me it's been seven years since the last one.

"I think in that seven years you just - because you don't win, there's not a whole lot of rewards, so you feel like the game beats you up a little bit."
It has beaten the 31-year-old up quite a bit, in fact.

As an amateur, Kuchar was second to none. In addition to the U.S. Amateur title he was an All-American in college at Georgia Tech, college player of the year in 1998, tied for 14th at the U.S. Open and tied for 21st at The Masters, both in 1998. He also played in four other PGA Tour events in '98 and made the cut in three of them.

After an amazing season like he had in 1998, most players would have turned pro. But Kuchar stayed in school, graduating with a degree in management in May of 2000. Upon graduation, he took a job in finance, but it was only a few months before he decided he wanted to give professional golf a go, turning pro in October and making his professional debut at the Australian Open in November - Aaron Baddeley won the event that year, for the record.

Kuchar battled to get onto the PGA Tour, which he did full-time in 2002, winning the Honda Classic early in the season and finishing 49th on the money list. Given his amateur career his entrance onto the PGA Tour was ballyhooed.

But then his game fell apart. He made just 8 of 23 cuts in 2003 and $176,043, placing him way down at 181st on the money list. He retained his exempt status on Tour because of his win at the Honda - a win on Tour gives a player at least a two-year exemption - but by the end of 2005 he'd lost it, along with his accuracy off the tee and with his irons. Maybe the pressure got to him. But Kuchar doesn't think so.

"I don't think expectations really affect a player that much," Kuchar said. "I think it has to do - all of us expect a lot out of ourselves. All of us think we're going to be champions out here. All of us expect to win golf tournaments.

"I got my first one relatively easy, my first year on Tour in 2002 winning the Honda Classic and felt like I was off and going. But this is difficult. The guys are great out here. And I've been fortunate to hook up with an instructor I really feel comfortable with Chris O'Connell, has been helping me for the last three or four years now. He's a Jim Hardy disciple, works on the one-play-and-swing method. I really feel like my game has improved a great deal since working with him.

"And I think there's a bit of a comfort level on TOUR. You hear some of the veterans talk about kind of a learning curve out here and almost a 10-year learning curve before you really get comfortable in how to play golf on TOUR, and I feel like I've maybe fallen into that. I feel like I'm maturing and it seems like you get guys in their 40s that are playing some of their best golf in their lives, because of the maturity that is involved with the game of golf. So I feel like I'm starting to enter that stage."

Under O'Connell, Kuchar has completely overhauled his swing. He got his playing privileges back for 2007. Since then, the improvement in his game has been incremental, leading up to Monday's big win.

The rest of the field

It was a big day for Kuchar, no doubt. But let's face it, the field wasn't exactly star-studded. After a grueling FedEx Playoff run - four tournaments in five weeks - the Tour's best took the week off, many of them to re-fuel for this week's President's Cup in San Francisco, California.

In fact, only 12 of the Tour's top-50 money winners were at Turning Stone Resort, playing in the wet, windy conditions for much of the week - only one of the top 20, reigning champion Dustin Johnson (15th).

The top of the leaderboard throughout the week didn't exactly blind the eyes with its luminescence. In addition to Kuchar (who jumped from 59th to 25th on the money list at $2,375,498) and Taylor (who went from 131st and in danger of losing his Tour card to 72nd with $1,167,282) Tim Petrovic and Leif Olson tied for third at 16-under. Jimmy Walker and John Senden tied for fifth at 15-under and a quintet - Bo Van Pelt, Jeev Singh (who?), Webb Simpson, Harrison Frazar and Rod Pampling tied for seventh at 14-under.

Olson, Walker and Frazar benefited big-time from the high finishes. Olson jumped from 214th to 148th ($412,966) in money, Walker from 153rd to 123rd ($589,833) and inside the Tour card safety zone (the top 125 retain playing privileges for the following year) and Frazar from 125th to 107th ($717,285).

This week

As mentioned, The President's Cup - the biennial best of the U.S. vs. best of the rest of the world match-play competition - takes center stage beginning Thursday.
We printed the lineups last week as well, but here they are again. The big controversy is, of course, Adam Scott's selection by Greg Norman. The 29-year-old former wunderkind has had a miserable season, but Norman likes his record in match-play events.

U.S. Team

Captain: Fred Couples
Assistant captain: Jay Haas

Tiger Woods
Phil Mickelson
Steve Stricker
Kenny Perry
Zach Johnson
Stewart Cink
Sean O'Hair
Jim Furyk
Anthony Kim
Justin Leonard
Lucas Glover
Hunter Mahan

International Team

Captain: Greg Norman (Australia)
Assistant captain: Frank Nobilo (New Zealand)

Geoff Ogilvy (Australia)
Vijay Singh (Fiji)
Camilo Villegas (Colombia)
Retief Goosen (South Africa)
Ernie Els (South Africa)
Angel Cabrera (Argentina)
Mike Weir (Canada)
Y.E. Yang (South Korea)
Tim Clark (South Africa)
Adam Scott (Australia)
Ryo Ishikawa (Japan)

The PGA Tour returns to its Fall Series of events in two weeks time (Oct. 15-18) at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Nevada.