Golf Twitter despises a lot of things, but right at the very top is relief from a temporary immovable obstruction (TIO). Somewhere in the middle are Matt Kuchar’s actions. Those two things intersected in a big way on Monday morning at the Wyndham Championship.
For those who missed it, Kuchar decided to make a statement of sorts by refusing to finish the 72nd hole at Sedgefield Country Club late Sunday, claiming the PGA Tour had allowed play to go on well past the time it should have blown the horn due to darkness. Of course, that didn’t exactly mesh with his decision to quickly play his tee shot on the final hole, where he hit into eventual winner Aaron Rai’s group, who was still in the fairway. The idea was that once Kuchar teed off, his group would be allowed to finish in darkness if they wanted to.
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They—they being Max Greyserman and Chad Ramey—did finish, but Kuchar did not. Sitting in a tie for 12th and with no chance to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Kuchar marked his ball in the left rough off the 18th fairway, watched as Greyserman and Ramey finished, and decided he would return Monday morning, alone, to finish.
After a brief warmup, Kuchar returned to the spot of his tee shot and promptly asked for TIO relief. If his goal was to become the most-hated man on Golf Twitter, he achieved it with this move:
Kuchar receiving line-of-sight relief from scoreboard .. final preparations, then will resume Round 4 @WyndhamChamp pic.twitter.com/e7YtnsVfnD
— Kevin Prise (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
Hey, at least he put the people he made come back a day later to work. Not to mention if you are going to go through all this trouble for a few FedEx Cup points, you might as well take every precaution you can.
The relief allowed Kuchar to drop in an adjacent fairway, where he hit his second shot up near the green and got up and down for a clutch par that was nearly 13 hours in the making:
Kuchar finishes up with a par and a T12 @WyndhamChamp
Handshakes of appreciation .. moves up 10 spots to No. 103 on FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, huge for his top-125 status
Smattering of patrons appreciate as well pic.twitter.com/c3oZyWkXwh
— Kevin Prise (@PGATOURKevin) August 12, 2024
Afterwards, Kuchar apologized to a small gathering of media members and everyone else he made a return for the Monday finish. He added that bogey may have been the best-case scenario had he tried to finish up in the dark late Sunday evening. Later this fall, we’ll see just how important that par was if he’s able to stay inside the top 125 and retain his tour card. He might just get the last laugh after all.
Main image: Isaiah Vazquez
