News
Kuchar drives Honda to First Professional Title
March 11, 2002
Associated Press
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Matt Kuchar reached into his left pants pocket, pulled out a small piece of white paper and read the phone message Greg Norman left for him.
"Congratulations. It's about bloody time. Welcome to the club," Norman said.
Nothing could have been more precise.
Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion who turned down millions in favor of graduating from Georgia Tech, earned his first PGA Tour victory Sunday.
Kuchar, 23, shot a 6-under 66 in the final round of the Honda Classic and beat Brad Faxon (67) and Joey Sindelar (70) by two strokes.
"What a great feeling, to come out on top, to play all week and to come out as the champion," Kuchar said through a seemingly everlasting smile. "It has not happened to me a whole lot, so the times it does, it's outstanding."
Kuchar finished at 19-under 269 and earned $630,000 in his 17th event as a professional.
"I wasn't sure it would happen as soon as it did," Kuchar said. "I knew it would it happen. I always dreamed and knew that I would win and that I would win a lot, but I wasn't sure that it would happen this soon."
The timing could not have been better. The Honda Classic was the final tournament for players to get into Masters, and Kuchar's victory moved him up to No. 50 in the world ranking and earned him another trip to Augusta National.
He had eight birdies and two bogeys in his final round, including four consecutive birdies on the back nine to help him rally from a four-shot deficit to Sindelar at the turn.
"It's going to be a big day for him," said Sindelar, a 43-year-old pro who made just one bogey in the tournament but remained winless on tour since 1990. "It's going to change his golf life. You think of what he's been through, being Mr. Everything there for a couple of years. I'm sure it was painful for him to go through that."
Kuchar needed just 23 putts, including eight over the final eight holes, to get the victory.
He gained a share of the lead with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-4 13th, then grabbed the outright lead on with a birdie on the par-5 14th -- his fourth straight birdie.
Kuchar extended the lead to two strokes with another birdie on the par-5 16th, and made sure no one could tie him with a solid par save on the tough, par-4 18th.
"When that putt dropped, the rush of excitement I felt, I haven't felt that since the U.S. Amateur," Kuchar said.
It has come full circle.
Kuchar was a college sophomore when he graced Augusta National with a wide-eyed gaze to go with a game good enough to tie for 21st and earn an invitation back to The Masters.
Two months later, he starred again in the U.S. Open. He outplayed several big names to reach the weekend just two strokes off the lead, and wound up in a respectable tie for 14th.
He could have turned pro then and would have cashed in on lucrative endorsement offers. Though he never saw any numbers, Kuchar guesses the deals would have been worth at least $2 million.
He passed it up for two more years at Georgia Tech, where results were measured by memories, not trophies.
"I've always known it was the right decision," he said.
The first player to win the U.S. Amateur after Tiger Woods turned pro, Kuchar never won another. He didn't even get past qualifying his last two tries. And Georgia Tech never won an NCAA title.
That was the downside.
Kuchar didn't decide to turn pro until after the deadline passed for PGA Tour Qualifying School. He worked as an investment banker in nearby Boca Raton, tempted to follow in the steps of Bobby Jones and remain an amateur for life.
But in the fall of 2000, after a few months in the business world, Kuchar was offered and accepted a sponsor's exemption into the Texas Open where a missed cut didn't matter.
What surprised Kuchar was how much he wanted to play again. He turned pro about a month later.
"I wanted nothing more than to be out there the very next week," he said. "I needed to go full-time, see if I could be around week-in, week-out with the best players in the world."
Kuchar's problem was that he was too late for the Q-School lead-in to gain eligibility for the 2001 PGA Tour season, and was restricted to seven sponsors' exemptions.
He finished second once, third once and earned $572,669 -- more than enough to earn his PGA Tour card for this season. Now he has made five cuts in six events this year and earned $824,791.
He thinks this will finally put to rest any questions about his decision to stay in school.
"This will be the clincher, for sure," he said.
