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I have some thoughts this morning about how the whole Wyndham Championship went down.
For those of you who don’t know, the final game of the regular season didn’t technically end until 8:06 a.m. ET on Monday.
Not because there was a need to pick a winner, but because someone decided to steal the spotlight.
Matt Kuchar.
In the ultimate act of selfishness, Kuchar decided it was too dark to finish playing for the day. After a weekend of marathon golf, you’d think getting it done would be a top priority, but for Kuchar, that wasn’t the case.
He marked his ball and left the golf course, after attempting to hit it to eventual winner Aaron Lai on the 18th hole.
Honestly, I couldn’t believe the nine-time PGA Tour winner would do something like this. He looked like he was trying to steal the spotlight from Lye, who had just won his first PGA Tour title and reached a FedEx Cup playoff.
No. Rather, we were all baffled by Kuchar’s choice.
Apparently he Lead by example According to an article from NBC Sports, Max Glazerman finished holing out, while Glazerman and Chad Ramey finished holing out but Kuchar did not.
“We were way past the time to stop playing,” Kuchar told reporter Todd Lewis. “If you look at what Max did on the 16th hole, they should have sounded the horn there. It’s a shame, the poor kid should have won this tournament. Maybe by me not playing, it will let Max know that he should take an important shot.”
Glaserman didn’t have the result he wanted: He was four strokes up after 13 holes, but then a quadruple bogey on the 14th hole, a birdie on the 15th and a double bogey on the 16th hole meant things started to go awry.
He went from comfortably winning the tournament to finishing runner-up, which of course is a tough truth to swallow, especially for a young PGA Tour player.
It’s unpleasant to see Kuchar walk off the course because of the shortcomings of others. Why did he decide to become a martyr at the Wyndham Championship?
In my opinion, Kuchar’s run into Rai’s group was a silly move, it wasn’t good, but if it was, it could have disrupted the play more.
Was it dark? Yes, but he was supposed to have finished with the rest of the group.
I also understand that this is their job. If he had made a bogey, his salary would have gone up from $223,833 to $77,025. But Kuchar has a lifetime earnings of nearly $60 million, so I think he’ll be fine financially.
Matt Kuchar is approaching $60 million in career earnings just on the PGA Tour, and no matter what happens, he’s going to miss the FedExCup playoffs. That’s just nuts.
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) August 12, 2024
It would be unreasonable and disrespectful to bring back so many people for three separate shoots, many of whom would likely have had to rearrange their flights and other travel arrangements to accommodate him.
It takes a lot of manpower to run a PGA Tour tournament, and when something like this happens, it creates a domino effect that likely puts everything behind schedule.
51 years ago, ChiChi Rodriguez Wyndham Champ At the end of Monday
Perhaps out of respect, Matt Kuchar will do the same.
Kuchar is in a cart heading to the practice field. Final preparations are underway for the 8 a.m. restart. He’s playing the 72nd hole. He’s currently in T12. pic.twitter.com/7RpPv7RGdb
— Kevin Prydz (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
Kuchar ended a 17-year playoff streak, which is also why he decided to take the lead role. All streaks come to an end at some point, and that was the case for the former Georgia Tech player who didn’t perform well enough to make the playoffs.
With all due respect to CBS Sports reporter Kyle Porter, golf = regular sport, and that’s the only way to sum up this tragic outcome.
This article is a little longer than your normal Golf Talk Today article, but what do you think about the recent Kuchar-gate on the PGA Tour, and did he make the right choice by returning on Monday morning?
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Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow us for more golf articles. Follow You can follow us on all major social platforms. You can also follow us on Twitter Follow Her Instagram account is @golf_girl_sl.
