Matt Kuchar has only one place to go.
One place up in the FedEx Cup standings, that is.
Kuchar is using last year’s second-place finish as motivation to win the PGA Tour playoffs, and earn a $10 million bonus check, as he starts play in the Tour Championship on Thursday. As he did last year, the Georgia Tech graduate controls his own fate as one of the top five in the point standings entering the finale.
It is a testament to how far Kuchar has come.
He won the 1997 U.S. Amateur title. After being named the nation’s top collegiate golfer he was the low amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 1998. He turned professional in 2000 and won the 2002 Honda Classic. The sky was the limit.
However just five years ago he played on the Nationwide Tour as he attempted to resurrect his game and return to play among golf’s elite.
He is back.
“For years my goal was to make the Tour Championship, to get into the top 30,” Kuchar said Wednesday. “That proved to be a difficult thing. Being one of the 30 best golfers on the PGA Tour is not easy. It took me many years to finally qualify.”
Kuchar had a career year in 2010. He led the PGA tour in scoring average. He had 11 top-10 finishes. He was the leading money winner. He made the Ryder Cup team. He won the season’s first playoff event, The Barclays, and entered his first Tour Championship as the overall playoff points leader.
He stumbled with a tie for 25th-place finish and lost the FedEx Cup title to Jim Furyk, who won the Tour Championship.
“It was something where I knew I could improve,” Kuchar said. “Last year at the end of the year, I looked at it and said ‘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 those numbers.
“But I did finish No. 2 on the FedEx Cup and knew I could actually move up a spot higher.”
Kuchar insists there is no sting to how last season ended.
“Jim Furyk had a fantastic year,” he said. “He won the Tour Championship and was a deserving winner of the FedEx Cup. That doesn’t sting. I didn’t three-putt the last hole to lose the tournament and the FedEx Cup. Jim Furyk won.”
Kuchar has turned in another impressive year. He has made cuts in 20 of 22 events, missing only at the British Open and the Canadian Open in back-to-back entries. He has nine top-10 finishes, is fourth in scoring average and fifth on the money list with over $4 million. He secured a spot on the Presidents Cup team.
Kuchar arrives at East Lake fifth in the point standings. A win at the Tour Championship will clinch the title. He can finish second and still have a chance.
“I think I did have some motivation, and [the FedEx Cup] was a category that I knew I could improve upon,” Kuchar said. “And I’m excited to have a chance. It kind of seems like a long shot to try to be FedEx Cup winner, but I’m here at the Tour Championship in the top five and have a legitimate shot.”
Kuchar credits his progress to swing coach Chris O’Connell. The two began to work together in 2006 when Kuchar was on the Nationwide Tour. He has shown steady improvement since.
In 2007, Kuchar returned to the PGA Tour and had a third-place finish. In 2008, he had a second-place finish. In 2009, he won his second event, the Turning Stone Championship, and missed the Tour Championship by five spots. He has been a serious contender for the FedEx Cup the past two years.
“It’s really been small incremental things getting better,” Kuchar said. “It’s funny, if you can improve a half a shot a day, that’s two shots a tournament. That’s a big deal.”
One thing is for sure, there will be fewer distractions this year. His wife, Sybi, is seeing to that. Last year, the Kuchar’s sold and moved from their Atlanta home the off week before the Tour Championship. Sybi, who played tennis at Georgia Tech, has limited much of his off-course activities and dinners with friends this year. He owes it to himself to take his best shot, she told him.
“Looking back at the year, I realized the tournament to win was not necessarily the first of the playoff events, it was the last of the playoff events that you really want to win,” Kuchar said.
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