Presumably, dozens of Wyndham Championship staffers will be asked to return to Sedgefield Country Club on Monday so Matt Kuchar can finish off his PGA Tour season, likely with an irrelevant bogey. (Note: This article has been updated after Monday's events.)
Aaron Rai (-18) has already won the tournament, snagging his first career PGA Tour win after Max Greyserman (-16) collapsed down the stretch.
The final groups were always going to be up against Mother Nature's clock. The field was forced to play two-plus rounds of golf on Sunday in North Carolina due to Tropical Storm Debby, but just finishing by the end of Sunday was a Herculean feat by the event and course staff.
Then, minutes before the finish line, Kuchar made a baffling decision. Here's what happened on the last hole of the PGA Tour regular-season finale.
Matt Kuchar's controversial Wyndham call
Kuchar — who has earned $59.8 million in his PGA Tour career — had been in contention earlier in the weekend after consecutive 64s, but fell back with a third-round 70. The 46-year-old needed to win the Wyndham to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs.
Playing in the final group, Kuchar was sitting in a 10-way tie for 12th place (-11) after a birdie on No. 17 got him back to 1-over for the round. Amidst increasing darkness, at the end of a long afternoon behind the uber-slow Rai, Kuchar sprinted to his tee shot on the par-4 18th. He missed the fairway, while hitting into the group ahead (Rai was unfazed; his tidy approach set-up the winning putt).
Kuchar's partners, Greyserman and Chad Ramey, opted to close out.
Suddenly, there Kuchar was, the last guy left on the course after an exhaustive day in North Carolina — for everybody. Kuchar was informed a “theoretical” horn had been blown, giving him the option to pause his round. So, as if he was never in a hurry, Kuchar marked his ball.
This means Matt Kuchar will need a bulk of the tournament infrastructure returning to place on Monday so he can chip out of the woods and putt once or twice. (He could still withdraw.)
One reporter on the ground gathered that Kuchar was frustrated after not being informed where Rai's group was on 18 due to the darkness, so his decision is driven by … spite, not visibility?
Kuchar did not address the media (as his round isn't over), but he did provide acurious explanation to the Golf Channel's Todd Lewis.
Kuchar began the week 113th in the FedExCup standings. He'll move up to 103th if he saves par.
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“I don't expect we'll be bring you that coverage tomorrow,” CBS' Jim Nantz said on the telecast.
UPDATE:
Kuchar did, in fact, return to Sedgefield on Monday morning to wrap things up. He arrived at 7:40 a.m. ET, spent a few minutes at the range and putting green, then addressed his 212-yard approach. At 8.am. ET — when play officially resumed — Kuchar took relief, and played his ball short of the green. He nearly holed his chip for birdie, then tapped in for par.
Afterward, Kuchar had a chance to explain himself.
“Nobody wants to be that guy … 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.
“Last night was dark … I think had I been in the fairway with a normal shot, I probably would have attempted to finish … Coming back in the morning, 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.”
“Everybody wants to get done, nobody wants to be that … we all want to get done. So yeah, you hit the tee shot and kind of decide from there. And you guys saw the predicament I was in, it was a horrible place. Had it been a standard shot, I most likely would have proceeded.
“It stinks. 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.”
Kuchar's 17-year playoffs streak is officially over.
