Matt Kuchar

Kuchar began playing golf at age 12 when his mother, Meg, upgraded the family's country club membership to include golf. Matt and his father, Peter, tried golf and were hooked. Matt won the 1997 U.S. Amateur, defeating Joel Kribel 2 & 1, and received exemptions to the 1998 Masters and U.S. Open. He made the cut and finished as low amateur in both. He qualified for return trips to both majors in 1999, with a T-21st finish at the Masters and a T-14th at the U.S. Open.
Kuchar won the 1998 Fred Haskins Award as the outstanding college golfer and was a first-team All-American. His Georgia Tech team finished 3rd in the 1998 NCAA Championships. He made it to the PGA Tour full-time in 2002 and won the Honda Classic that year, but lost his exemption after 2005. He regained it in 2007 and bounced back.
In 2010, he won The Barclays in the FedExCup playoffs, led the money list, and won the Vardon Trophy for low scoring average. Member of 2010, '12, '14 and '16 U.S. Ryder Cup teams and 2011, '13, '15, '17 & '19 Presidents Cup teams.
2006 Korn Ferry Tour Summary: Tournaments Entered - 21; Rounds Played - 74; In Money - 16; Top-10 Finishes - 5; Money - $300,867 (rank 10th); Best Finish - 1st, Henrico County Open.
2010 Notes: Kuchar enjoyed his career-best season, finishing 2nd in the FedExCup standings with a victory at The Barclays and a Tour-leading 11 top-10 finishes. Led the Tour in official earnings ($4,910,477) and won the Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average (69.61).
2011 Notes: Finished 6th in FedExCup points and earnings and recorded two runner-up finishes among his nine top-10s. Established a new PGA Tour record for most money won ($4,233,920) without the benefit of a victory. Steve Stricker broke the record in 2013 with $4,440,532. Kuchar compiled a 1-3-1 record as one of six U.S. Presidents Cup team rookies. He capped his year by teaming with Gary Woodland, representing the U.S. at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China. The pairing shot a final-round 67 in foursomes to defeat the English team of Ian Poulter and Justin Rose by two strokes. It was the first U.S. victory since 2000 in the long-running team competition.
2012 Notes: His season was highlighted by winning The Players Championship. Produced nine top-10 results, two of them in majors: T-3rd at the Masters and T-9th at the British Open. He played in the Tour Championship for the third consecutive year and finished 18th in the FedExCup standings and 11th on the money list, earning just under $4 million. He posted a 2-1-0 record in his second Ryder Cup appearance.
2013 Notes: Won the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after he withstood the snow, sleet, rain, and high winds that delayed the start of the event a day. In the championship match, Kuchar held off Hunter Mahan, the defending champion, to win 2 & 1. Despite Kuchar taking a 4-up lead at No. 8 of the scheduled 18-hole final, Mahan was only 1-down with two holes to play. The match ended when Mahan conceded at No. 17 after failing to advance his second shot from the greenside waste area. With Mahan's concession, Kuchar did not play the 18th hole all week, joining only Luke Donald as a champion, who avoided the home hole throughout the tournament. With the win, Kuchar moved from No. 23 to No. 8 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Three months later, he won The Memorial, which advanced him to 4th in the world. He dropped back to 7th at the start of 2014. He finished the year 6th in the FedExCup standings and 3rd on the money list.
2014 Notes: He finished in the top-15 in 13 of his first 19 starts. He was in 2nd place going into the third round at the Valero Texas Open before shooting 75 to finish T-4th. The following week, he was the third-round leader going into the final round of the Shell Houston Open, shot 72, and lost the playoff to Matt Jones. At the Masters, he was 3rd going into the final round, shot 74, and finished T-5th. The following week, he was six strokes behind going into the final round at RBC Heritage, shot 64, and won the event, edging Luke Donald by a stroke. He posted two more top-10s before the FedExCup playoffs: a T-7th at the HP Byron Nelson and a T-4th at RBC Canadian Open, where he shot 65 in the final round. They started strong in the playoffs with a T-5th at The Barclays but cooled down with a T-29th at the Deutsche Bank, T-46th at the BMW Championship, and 13th at the Tour Championship. They finished 8th in the FedExCup standings and 9th on the money list.
2015 Notes: With opening rounds of 65-63, Kuchar shared the 36-hole lead at the Sony Open in Hawaii with Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas. He closed with rounds of 68-71 to finish T-3rd, 10 strokes behind runaway winner Jimmy Walker. The following week in Palm Springs at the Humana Challenge, he had control of the event early, but in the third round, he bogeyed holes 15, 17, and 18 to lose his lead. Shot a final-round 67, but so did Bill Haas, who won, with Kuchar finishing T-2nd. Kuchar finished 5th at the RBC Heritage, four strokes out of the playoff. Shot one over par at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and finished T-12th. At the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, he was T-2nd, one stroke behind winner Rickie Fowler. He was T-7th at the RBC Canadian Open. They played in all four FedExCup playoffs. He finished T-9th at the Deutsche Bank and T-10th at the Tour Championship. He ended the year 19th in the FedExCup standings and 28th on the money list. He went 0-2-1 in his three Presidents Cup matches. He won the Fiji International in October 2015, his first non-PGA Tour title that didn't involve a teammate.
2016 Notes: Finished T-8th at the Northern Trust. At the WGC-Dell Match Play, lost in the quarterfinals (T-9th) to Brooks Koepka, 1-up. Starting at the RBC Heritage, through seven weeks, reached the top-10 five times in six starts: T-9th at the RBC Heritage, T-3rd at The Players Championship, 3rd at the AT&T Byron Nelson, T-6th at the Dean & Deluca, and T-4th at The Memorial. Recorded his third 3rd-place finish of the year with a T-3rd at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He was T-9th at the RBC Canadian Open. Represented the United States at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Matched the course record eight-under 63 (set by Australian Marcus Fraser in the first round) in the final round to capture the bronze medal with a 13-under-par 271 and stand on the podium alongside gold-medal winner Justin Rose (Great Britain) and silver medalist Henrik Stenson (Sweden). He returned to play in the FedExCup playoffs, where he finished T-4th at the BMW Championship. He placed T-15th at the Tour Championship. He finished 18th in the FedExCup standings and 15th on the money list. He gained his fourth berth in the Ryder Cup as a captain's pick for the U.S. He went 2-2 in his four matches in the United States 17-11 win over the Europeans. Teamed with Dustin Johnson in a dominating 5 & 4 victory over Lee Westwood and Thomas Pieters in Friday foursomes, helping lead the Americans to a 4-0 start at Hazeltine. He ended his year with a T-3rd finish at the Hero World Challenge and then won the Franklin Templeton Shootout for the second time in four years with partner Harris English.
2017 Notes: Finished T-9th at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, then T-4th at the Masters, four strokes out of the Garcia/Rose playoff. They also finished T-4th at The Memorial, four strokes behind winner Jason Dufner and T-4th at the Scottish Open, five strokes out of the Cabrera-Bello/Shinkwin playoff. He held the lead after 67 holes at the British Open and, despite playing his final five holes in one under par, was overtaken and defeated by Jordan Spieth, who played those five holes in five under par. His 2nd-place finish was Kuchar's best and ninth top-10 in 47 majors played. He got his 10th major top-10 with a T-9th at the PGA Championship. Played in all four FedExCup playoff events and was in the top 10 at the Northern Trust (T-10th), T-5th at the BMW Championship, and T-10th at the Tour Championship. They finished 14th in the final FedExCup standings. He made his fourth consecutive appearance at the Presidents Cup, where he went 2-1-0.
2018 Notes: Played 24 PGA Tour events, making 20 cuts with four top-10 results. He finished 76th in the FedExCup standings, his worst ranking since 2008. He was T-5th at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, four strokes behind winner Gary Woodland. He lost to Kevin Kisner 1-down in the round of 16 of the WGC-Dell Match Play. They placed T-8th at the Houston Open and T-9th at the British Open. He ended the year as one of Jim Furyk's vice-captains at the Ryder Cup.
2019 Notes: Played in 22 PGA Tour events, making 20 cuts with eight top-10 finishes. He won the Mayakoba Golf Classic by a stroke over Danny Lee. He won his second season title at the Sony Open in Hawaii by four over Andrew Putnam. His 258 tournament total was his personal best in 430 starts on the PGA Tour. He won at the age of 40 years, 6 months, 23 days. It was his 100th top-10 in his PGA Tour career. Finished T-4th at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, shot a final-round 75 to fall five strokes behind winner Rickie Fowler. He lost in the championship match at the WGC-Dell Match Play to Kevin Kisner, 1-up, to finish runner-up. He won the event in 2013. He went 2-0-1 in group play to advance and birdied two of his last three holes in his semifinal match with Lucas Bjerregaard to win 1-up. He was T-7th at the Valero Texas Open. At the Masters, he shot a final-round 72 and finished T-12th, five strokes behind winner Tiger Woods. He had his second runner-up finish in a month at the RBC Heritage Classic. Kuchar birdied the 72nd hole, but it was not enough. He finished a stroke behind winner C.T. Pan. Shot a final-round 69 to finish T-8th at the PGA Championship. His fourth top-10 was his 11th start at the major and his best result in a major since his runner-up at the 2017 British Open. Opened with rounds of 65-63, but with rounds of 69-70, finished T-4th at the RBC Canadian Open. In the FedExCup, he missed the cut at the Northern Trust, was T-52nd at the BMW Championship, and was T-16th at the Tour Championship. He played in the Presidents Cup and had a 0-1-3 record in five matches. He halved his singles match with Louis Oosthuizen.
2020 Notes: Played in 16 PGA Tour events, making 12 cuts with one top-10 finish. He was 62nd in the FedExCup standings. He won the SMBC Singapore Open by three strokes over Justin Rose. He was T-2nd at The Genesis Invitational, two strokes behind winner Adam Scott. In the FedExCup playoffs, they finished T-18th at the Northern Trust and T-59th at the BMW Championship.
2021 Notes: Played in 25 PGA Tour events making 12 cuts with one top-ten finish. It was 122nd in the FedExCup points list. I was able to team with Harris English to win the QBE Shootout. But for the year, going into the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, his best finish was T-34th at the Shriners Hospitals Children Open. Being in Texas, he worked a lot with his coach Chris O'Connell; they had been working for two months on something that paid off in the week. It showed that things started to feel good about how he was hitting the ball. In group play, he beat Players Champion winner, Justin Thomas, defending champion Kevin Kisner and former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen to move on. In the round of 16, he beat Jordan Spieth 1 up, then Brian Harman 2 & 1 before Scottie Scheffler defeated him 1 up. In the consolation match, he beat Victor Perez 2 & 1 for his best finish and first top-ten since the runner-up finish at the 2020 Genesis Invitational. They kept up the good play the next week, finishing T-12th at the Valero Texas Open. In the FedExCup playoffs missed the cut at the Northern Trust.
2022 Notes: Played in 20 PGA Tour events making 15 cuts with three top-ten finishes. It was 66th in the FedExCup rankings. Shot 67-67 over the weekend to finish T-7th at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Finished T-2nd at the Valero Texas Open, two shots back of winner J.J. Spaun. It was his 14th career runner-up on the PGA Tour and first since the 2020 Genesis Invitational. He was T-3rd at the RBC Heritage, a shot back of the Jordan Spieth/Patrick Cantlay playoff. In the FedExCup playoffs, they missed the cut at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and T-35th at the BMW Championship.
2023 Notes: Was T-7th at the Sony Open in Hawaii and 8th at the Genesis Invitational. Advanced to the Round of 16 at the WGC-Dell Match Play and tied Tiger Woods for most match victories in tournament history before falling to Jason Day, 1-up. He compiled a 2-0-1 record in group play with wins over Viktor Hovland and Si Woo Kim and a tie against Chris Kirk. He was T-3rd at the Valero Texas Open, two shots back of winner Corey Conners.