Matt Kuchar, ever the optimist, seemed like even he started to lose some sunshine on Sunday after coming up short in his bid to win the Masters.
For the third year, Kuchar started on the leaderboard and for the third year he couldn’t find a way to get to the top and stay there. Starting the day a shot behind the leaders, he briefly moved into a tie for the lead at 6 under. That’s as close as he would get. Kuchar signed for a 2-over 74 to finish six shots behind winner Bubba Watson.
“It’s an exciting place to be, but it’s a tough one,” he said. “I don’t know how many opportunities you get at winning the Masters.”
Kuchar, a former standout at Georgia Tech, has six wins since joining the PGA Tour in 2001 but no majors.
He has come close.
He was in fifth heading into the final round of the Masters in 2012 and finished tied for third, undone by a bogey on 16. He was in sixth heading into the final round last year but shot a 1-over 73 and tied for eighth.
He seemed poised to finally break through on Sunday.
After tapping in for birdie on the second hole to get to 5 under, he chipped in for another birdie on the third hole to get to 6 under and move into a tie with then-leader Jordan Spieth.
Cries of “Kooooch” rang out.
That would be as close as he could get to his first green jacket.
He gave back both birdies with a surprising double bogey on the par-3 fourth. His tee shot found the left side of the green, where the pin was located on the right.
His first putt across the green came up seven feet short. His par putt caught the lip and was slung seven feet past. He missed the bogey putt.
“I can’t recall the last time I four-putted,” he said. “If there was ever the place to do it…”
Ever the optimist, Kuchar said it wasn’t too much to overcome because even-par through the first four holes wasn’t too bad.
But then a driver that caused him problems on the first hole continued to spray the ball. Kuchar hit just seven of 14 fairways, his worst accuracy of the week.
The pressure it put on his second shots was too much, forcing Kuchar to scramble for too many pars and not enough birdies.
He missed the fairway badly to the left on the par-four ninth, forcing him to punch out from the pine trees with a fairway wood. He made a bogey to drop to 3 under.
He birdied No. 11 after overcoming another bad drive to the left with an excellent approach out of the pine needles and onto the green.
He had a shot at another birdie on 12 after an excellent tee shot, but he pushed the putt right and walked off with a par.
He had two more chances to make up a lot of ground on the remaining par 5s at 13 and 15. Once again, his driver left him down to the left on 13 when he hit into the hazard but not the creek. He walked off with a par.
“I just seemed to miss the fairway by little bits here and there,” he said.
He finally hit a good drive on 15, where he put his approach into the bunker to the right of the green. His splash out wouldn’t stop rolling across the green, leaving a difficult birdie putt that he couldn’t make.
After signing his scorecard, Kuchar hung around for a second to congratulate Spieth and Watson as they made their way off the course.
Kuchar didn’t stay down for long. A few seconds after discussing how tough it is to lose, he stopped for a second and the sunshine of challenging for the lead made him smile.
“It’s a lot better in position than playing early on Sunday, that’s for sure,” he said.
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