Can Kuchar Finally Win The Tour Championship?
Consistency isn't everything, but for Matt Kuchar it has earned him a very nice living.
The Georgia Tech standout and 1997 U.S. Amateur champion has been on the PGA Tour since 2002, in that time he has recorded 40 Top 10's including 152 cuts made, that is a tidy 26% and earned over $16.7 million in that time period.
The downside, if there is one, is that Kuchar has only recorded three wins in 2002, 2009 and 2010, but over the last two years has had three runner-up finishes, four third place finishes and 20 top 10s.
It's enough to keep your head spinning, but also makes you wonder why?
"I won the Money List, I won the stroke average, now you could always say I could earn more money and shoot lower scores and beat both of those numbers," Kuchar said of when he analyzed last year. "But I did finish No. 2 on the FedExCup and knew that I could actually move up a spot higher in the FedExCup."
Making that last move up the ladder is not easy. Kuchar has accomplished his goal so for by making it to the Tour Championship, something the defending champion Jim Furyk fell short of.
Kuchar also is in very good position to win the FedEx Cup, which he could do with a win this week since he is in the top 5 in the points list and anyone in the top 5 can win with a victory.
But its also a similar position that Kuchar found himself in last year, coming in the top dog on the list, a T25 in Atlanta dropped him to second in the end result.
"My wife has made me limit the off‑course activities, getting together with friends, dinners, those sort of things," Kuchar said of this years preparation versus last years. "Which has been tough to say no to the friends; texting saying if you have an open night, love to catch up for dinner. So many of those I've gone ahead and said this year we're going to try to stay a lot more quiet."
Last year was the first year Kuchar had made it to the Tour Championship at East Lake, but going to school in Atlanta has given him plenty of looks at Robert T. Jones, Jr's home course, but it still gets back to the same thing, can Kuchar win.
Everyone above him in the points last, Luke Donald, Webb Simpson, Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson has won this year, can Kuchar?
"I hope that's not the way it works out," Kuchar said of the possible scenario of winning the FedEx Cup without winning in 2011. "I think the way Jim Furyk did it last year, winning the TOUR Championship, winning the whole thing, that's the way to do it. I'd like to do it that way. If it works out that I don't win and I still win the FedExCup, that will be a fun topic to try to figure out how to prove myself or prove that being worthy."
Stuart Hall is editor of the Golf Press Association.
