{"id":305879,"date":"2025-07-31T06:11:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305879\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T06:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:11:20","slug":"i-know-it-stinks-golf-star-forced-entire-tournament-to-return-on-monday-to-save-himself-66k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305879\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I know it stinks’ – Golf star forced entire tournament to return on Monday to save himself $66k"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tiger Woods said it best when he described golf as a lonely sport – and Matt Kuchar can back him up against any doubters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 47-year-old is making his return to the Wyndham Championship<\/a> this week, but won’t be expecting the red carpet rolled out for him.<\/p>\n

\"Kuchar<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Kuchar chose not to finish the 18th hole at the 2024 Wyndham ChampionshipCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The 2017 Open Championship<\/a> runner-up may have some making up to do after his last visit to Sedgefield Country Club, this time last year.<\/p>\n

Kuchar was forced to issue an apology after exercising his right not to finish<\/a> the 72nd hole of the weather-affected 2024 tournament.<\/p>\n

The American had needed a win to maintain his run as the only player to reach the FedExCup Playoffs every year since its first in 2007.<\/p>\n

However, the PGA Tour<\/a> veteran found himself out of contention by the time he took his final tee shot on the 18th hole on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Kuchar, who birdied the 17th hole, was jeered for quickly hitting his drive from the 18th tee, with England’s Aaron Rai still on the fairway.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, his ball sailed into the left rough, 212 yards from the flag, but ‘Kuch’ then bizarrely wanted to take his time to assess his options.<\/p>\n

He ultimately surprised everyone by making the unusual decision not to finish amid the dimming daylight at Sedgefield Country Club.<\/p>\n

CBS analyst Trevor Immelman noted that a horn had not been blown for darkness, but rules official, Orlando Pope, revealed it was past sunset and the final group had been given the option not to complete.<\/p>\n

Max Greyserman and Chad Ramey both opted to finish, yet Kuchar\u00a0informed tournament officials he would return on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I can\u2019t remember ever having seen before,\u201d commentator Jim Nantz admitted during the live broadcast. <\/p>\n

\"Kuchar<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Kuchar threw his hands up saying the horn had ‘theoretically’ been blownCredit: Sky Sports\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour star wasn’t happy and later explained whyCredit: Sky SportsWhy did Kuchar finish on Monday?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called it for a player who\u2019s not truly in contention to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, explaining his decision, Kuchar said he wanted to make a protest for Greyserman in front of him.<\/p>\n

The latter, who had surrendered a four-shot lead after 13 holes but could still catch Rai with an eagle, may have fought for victory had the day been ended earlier, Kuchar argued.<\/p>\n

“I was trying to set an example for Max,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We were so far past when we should\u2019ve stopped playing. We saw what Max did on hole 16 (four-putting for a double bogey) \u2013 they should\u2019ve blown the horn there.<\/p>\n

“I feel bad, the poor kid should\u2019ve won this tournament. By me not playing, it may show Max he has an important shot to hit.”<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Aaron Rai won at Sedgefield Country Club last yearCredit: GettyWhat is the Wyndham Championship prize money?<\/p>\n

Kuchar duly returned to the course at 8am local time on Monday morning to play his 72nd hole.<\/p>\n

He parred the 508-yard 18th to finish in a 10-way tie for 12th place at 11 under, seven strokes behind the winner (and player he could have accidentally struck with his tee-shot the night before),\u00a0Rai.<\/p>\n

His T12 finish also came with a $135,000 paycheck, a far cry from what looked to have been his earnings had he continued his first attempt, where a bogey would have dropped him to T21.<\/p>\n

Crucially, Kuchar also moved up 10 spots to No. 103 in the FedEx Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

As a result, he maintained his tour card for this year after finishing the season in the Top 125.<\/p>\n

It took Kuchar six minutes to complete the last hole on the Monday, after which he apologized to all the staff who had to return for him.<\/p>\n

\"Kuchar<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

Kuchar claimed he wanted to help Greyserman in hopes that the latter would follow his lead in stoppingCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“Sorry that you guys had to come out this morning,” he said. “Nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn’t finish. <\/p>\n

“I can’t tell you how many times I have been finished with a round [and] bummed out that we didn’t get to make the cut because somebody didn’t finish.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“I did not realise Aaron Rai made birdie on the last. I’m figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament. So I said, well, Max will stop, I’ll stop, kind of make it easy on him.<\/p>\n

“Again, it stinks to\u2026 nobody wants to be that guy that’s showing up today, one person, one hole. So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out.<\/p>\n

“I know the ramifications, I know it stinks. Certainly I apologise to force everybody to come out here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods said it best when he described golf as a lonely sport – and Matt Kuchar can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4366,91052,112397,112398,4298,4321,112399,79,112396,4320,16,15,112405,112403,112401,112404,112402,112400],"class_list":{"0":"post-305879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-golf-news","10":"tag-golf-throwbacks","11":"tag-matt-kuchar","12":"tag-monday-finish-at-wyndham","13":"tag-pga-tour","14":"tag-ryder-cup","15":"tag-sedgefield-country-club","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-the-wyndham-championship","18":"tag-tiger-woods","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wyndham-championship-2025","22":"tag-wyndham-championship-2025-leaderboard","23":"tag-wyndham-championship-2025-live","24":"tag-wyndham-championship-2025-prize-money","25":"tag-wyndham-championship-2025-tee-times","26":"tag-wyndham-championship-prize-money"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114946368518635175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}