ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 The family element of the PNC Championship is what separates the team event from any other tournament. But even by the old \u201cfather-son\u201d standards, Sunday\u2019s finish was an emotional mix of satisfaction and sadness.<\/p>\n
Team Kuchar cruised to a seven-stroke victory with a 33-under total \u2014 which were both tournament records. But for Matt Kuchar and son Cameron, this was about much more than a \u201cchallenge season\u201d trophy or a Christmas bonus. <\/p>\n
Matt Kuchar\u2019s father, Peter, died in February. Peter Kuchar was a staple any time his son was competing, from his early days as a U.S. Amateur champion, to The Players champion in 2012, to earn his spot in the field at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. Peter Kuchar was teamed with his son three times at the PNC Championship, which made the family\u2019s breakthrough on Sunday even more emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if you believe in karma, if you believe in fate, whatever you believe in, there\u2019s something \u2026 something magical that does exist,\u201d Matt Kuchar said. \u201cI\u2019m a believer in God, that dad is up above looking down, and what happened on 18, I could hardly stand up and hit a shot. For me to hit it to a foot [on the final hole], makes me think there\u2019s something more out there. [I] just miss \u2026 miss pops.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The birdie at the 36th hole capped a brilliant performance for Matt and Cameron, who is set to play for the men\u2019s golf team at Texas Christian University. Team Kuchar finished with an 18-under 54, which is an 18-hole tournament record, that included two eagles, 14 birdies and just two pars. The 33-under total shattered the previous tournament total by five strokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something we\u2019ve had our sights on for many years, since Cameron got started. I played my first year with Dad, [Cameron] has some great memories,\u201d said Matt Kuchar, who fought back tears following the victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe classic memories of Dad, and Cameron was caddying and we were just shy of the green in two, close to the water\u2019s edge, and his chipping was never his strong suit and he completely whiffed the chip. I don\u2019t think Cameron could see all the way down the hill. Dad is smiling from above.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis Love III and his son, Dru, tied Team Daly \u2014 John and his son, John II \u2014 for second at 26 under par.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 The family element of the PNC Championship is what separates the team event from any…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":464114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-464113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115762656899545886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}