Matt Kuchar has apologized for opting to complete his final hole of the Wyndham Championship on Monday.
The American took his tee shot on the 72nd hole on Sunday evening but then marked his ball and walked off the course in the fading light despite being out of contention for the opportunity to make the field for this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. That left him the only player who needed to come back on Monday to finish, where he made par to close out a round of 71 for an 11-under T12.
Following the delayed end of his round, Kuchar explained to the media why he had made the decision to come back on Monday, but began by apologizing for the inconvenience it had caused. He said: “Sorry that you guys had to come out this morning. Listen, nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn't finish.
“I can't tell you how many times I have been finished with a round thinking, bummed out that somebody didn't finish, that we didn't get to make the cut because somebody didn't finish. Here it's me now as the guy that didn't get to finish the tournament.”
“But last night, last night was dark," he said. “I mean, we had texts that round one was suspended at 8.15, round two was suspended at 8.25. That was to make the cut, so they pushed it even longer. Last night round four was suspended at 8.40, like it was dark.”
The nine-time PGA Tour winner then explained that the travails of Max Greyserman, who had been the likeliest to win before a quadruple bogey on the 16th, which included a four-putt, had informed his decision.
He added: “I think had I been in the fairway with a normal shot, I probably would have attempted to finish, but I had just seen Max four-putt the 16th hole. If there was daylight on that green, does he four-putt? I don't know, I don't know. But I just watched something happen.
"I had a putt three holes prior, 13th hole, decent daylight, no daylight on the green, totally covered in shade, missed a five-footer. Like I'm thinking it's hard to putt.”
Kuchar also said that his decision was in part because he was unaware that Aaron Rai ultimately took advantage of Greyserman’s misfortune to birdie the last for his maiden PGA Tour win.
“I did not realize Aaron Rai made birdie on the last, so I'm over on 10 trying to figure out what I'm going to do," he explained. "I'm figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament. I thought Max for sure had a shot to win and I thought no way in this situation do you hit this shot, you come back in the morning 100 percent of the time.
“So I said, well, Max will stop, I'll stop, kind of make it easy on him. And for me, coming back in the morning, like I never would have taken that drop last night, I never would have thought to ask. I knew I was in a terrible situation, I was praying to make bogey from where I was. To walk away with par, nearly birdie, is a huge bonus.
“Again, it stinks to - nobody wants to be that guy that's showing up today, one person, one hole. Not even one hole, half a hole to putt. So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out. I know it stinks, I know the ramifications, I know it stinks. Certainly I apologize to force everybody to come out here.”
Even though Kuchar's 17-year streak of FedEx Cup Playoff appearances has now ended, his final-hole par helped him to $144,965, whereas a bogey would have seen him win $79,658.
