Getty Image / Isaiah Vazquez
The PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship wrapped up on Monday morning in the strangest of ways due to Matt Kuchar holding up the tournament from finishing.
Kuchar could have finished his round on Sunday. We know this because his partner did. Instead, the 9-time PGA Tour winner marked his ball after hitting his tee shot on 18 and cited darkness as the reason for being unable to finish. Which then meant that everyone involved had to show back up on Monday morning to start deconstructing the PGA Tour’s setup. Aaron Rai’s first PGA Tour win wasn’t official until Monday morning all because of Kuchar’s selfishness.
Many of the Wyndham Championship volunteers would need to return all for one player, who could have finished his round and we know that because Kuchar’s playing partner finished while Matt opted to mark his ball. Kevin Prise of PGA Tour Digital was out there on Monday morning to watch Matt finish up in front of a handful of fans who returned.
51 years ago, Chi Chi Rodriguez won @WyndhamChamp in a Monday finish
Perhaps in homage, Matt Kuchar will do the same
Kuchar on cart headed to range, final prep for 8 am restart .. playing 72nd hole, current T12 pic.twitter.com/7RpPv7RGdb
— Kevin Prise (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
Kuchar was the only golfer on the range. He was the only golfer on the putting green. And he was the only golfer on the course because he opted not to finish his round and hold every one up…
Last-minute stop on putting green for Matt Kuchar before Monday finish @WyndhamChamp
Was only player to make FedExCup Playoffs for first 17 iterations .. will fall just short in 2024, but gave it his all pic.twitter.com/T1MQbcREmX
— Kevin Prise (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
Where exactly is the scoreboard that’s messing up his line of sight here?
Kuchar receiving line-of-sight relief from scoreboard .. final preparations, then will resume Round 4 @WyndhamChamp pic.twitter.com/e7YtnsVfnD
— Kevin Prise (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
And with a ho-hum par, Matt finished tied for 12th which paid out $144,965. Kuchar has $59,787,247 in career earnings on the PGA Tour so it’s not like that is life-changing money for him.
Moving up 10 spots in the FedEx Cup Standings/Money List was huge for Kuchar who now sits in 103rd and will comfortably retain his top-125 status on the Tour. Normally, a PGA Tour player’s partner in the round has to stand witness as they fill out/sign their scorecard. In this instance, Kuchar’s partner wasn’t required to come back just to watch Matt fill out his scorecard and instead a PGA Tour official filled in.
Over on Golf Twitter/Golf X, people had scorching hot takes about what went down. Most of the posts about Kuchar are too profane for me to share here but the gist is the entire golf community is stunned that one man would choose to hold up the entire tournament because he was angry.
Matt Kuchar when he’s seven shots back with one to play and the event is over. pic.twitter.com/zBYqVsAx5Q
— Geoff (@thefantasygrind) August 12, 2024
If Kuchar bogeyed the hole it would have cost him $58K in winnings. Again, he’s won nearly $60 million on the PGA Tour alone. Some people suggested the PGA Tour fine Matt for his behavior. Others pointed out that regardless of whether Kuchar birdied the hole he wouldn’t make the FedEx Cup Playoffs so there was truly no point to what he did.
If I’m Aaron Rai I’d be furious. Kuchar robbed him of the chance to celebrate his first PGA Tour win by delaying the tournament another day. Why? That’s the million dollar question. If it was too dark then how was Kuchar’s partner able to finish the hole and move on? Was this truly just a selfish move? People are wondering.