By SCOTT HAMILTON
shamilton@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5533
It’s been nearly a year since I sat in high-back leather chairs with Matt Kuchar in the recesses of the TPC-Sugarloaf clubhouse. I haven’t chatted with him since.
But when he tees it up at Harbour Town Golf Links today for the Verizon Heritage, there’s little doubt he’s changed. Kuchar is an unassuming guy on a PGA Tour that so desperately needs an injection of personality, though not at the expense of character.
For every Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia — players who exude charisma and create a sense of drama by merely sipping water — there are a dozen other players who go about their business in a professional, low-key manner. Their galleries are thin, their sponsorship portfolios are relatively lean and they can plop down next to you at a bar and you’d be none the wiser as to what they do for a living. And their resumes, like practically every tour golfer, are littered with achievement, though they fall well short of their big-name peers’.
That’s the category Kuchar falls in, though with little regret. It’s reflected by the way he treats others, both his fellow pros as well the average Joe who seeks out his autograph though he’s not exactly sure who’s signing his hat. Kuchar acknowledges everyone with a genuine smile.
But there is a difference between Kuchar and most of the other rank and file members of the tour. At one time Kuchar wasn’t meant to be a simple soldier in the army of Tiger, Phil and Sergio. Expectations were grand and talk concerning Kuchar going into every week wasn’t if he would contend or simply make the cut, but whether he would win. Greatness, or at the very least very good things, seemed a lock.
After all, how could the stars not have been aligned for Kuchar when he turned pro in 2001? He had been a two-time first-team All-America selection at collegiate golf power Georgia Tech and was an all-Atlantic Coast Conference pick each of his four years. Kuchar was ACC Player of the Year in 1998, the same year he won the Fred Haskins Award as the nation’s top collegiate golfer. He won the 1997 U.S. Amateur and was a member of the 1999 U.S. Walker Cup team. Kuchar even finished 21st at the Masters as well as 14th at the U.S. Open in 1998, proving he could hang with the big boys under the most extreme conditions and captivate fans and the media by smiling the whole time.
He played through sponsor’s exemptions during that rookie season in 2001 and earned enough to avoid PGA Tour qualifying school and earn full playing status on the tour. Kuchar parlayed that into a victory the following year at the Honda Classic.
Ah, but that’s when things finally got difficult.
Over the next four seasons, top-10 finishes were as rare as snow in July as he struggled to simply make cuts. He eventually had to retreat to the Nationwide Tour for 21 events in 2006, where he got reacquainted with winning and was able to get promoted back to the PGA Tour for 2007.
It would have been an insult to many with the similar success Kuchar had already experienced, especially since he says it was something he ever expected and certainly hadn’t prepared himself for. But in hindsight he realizes it was a much-needed lesson about something the tour vets call a “10-year learning curve,” a process that has as much to do with the lifestyle of a pro golfer as it does the game itself.
Not that Kuchar needed help making curfew — he’s a fun-loving guy with a strong moral compass that points him toward the right kind of fun.
Instead it was about adapting and learning the nuances of tour life that go overlooked: Where to stay, the differences about each course, when to go to the equipment trailer for a tune-up and more. It was an education you often can’t circumvent through talent alone.
“When I first heard it, I didn’t see a lot of validity in the 10-year learning curve,” Kuchar said. “I’d seen the exceptions to it — Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, guys who’ve had great success quickly. But there aren’t that many guys who seem to come straight out of college and have an instant impact on the tour. There is definitely a learning curve out here, though, and I don’t know how to describe it to the rookies.”
Kuchar may not be able to explain it, but he understands it. His results since returning to the tour are a testament to that.
He’s made 16 cuts out of 26 events each year since returning to the Tour full time in 2007. He’s also had seven top-10 finishes, including five last year when he finished tied for seventh at the Heritage and runner-up at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Kuchar missed the cut at this year’s season-opening Sony Open before making six straight, finishing the FBR Open tied for sixth.
Part of Kuchar’s resurgence, of course, could be the work he’s done to improve his game. He’s spent the past three years adapting to a one-plane swing with a coach, something he says has given him more consistency and is just an overall good fit for his style of golf.
The rest, however, goes back to that 10-year curve. Well, that and the simple process of accepting maturity as it comes to you.
“I thought ‘Wow, it’s been 10 years since I won the U.S. Amateur.’ But I haven’t really reflected too much on the way things have gone,” Kuchar said. “I’m awfully happy with the way things have gone, where I am in life at the moment. I’ve got a great wife and a child now, which is awesome.
“And I’m living a dream playing golf on the PGA Tour. Life is really, really good for me.”
