What Was Matt Kuchar Thinking?

If you thought you missed the ending to last night’s Wyndham Championship, no, you didn’t, because it didn’t wrap up until Monday morning. The weather-delayed PGA Tour season finale was always going to face a race against Sunday’s sunset, especially with modern pace of play in the pro game. But Monday finishes aren’t unheard of, and it would have been understandable if unfortunate had a few groups not finished play.
That, however, is not what happened. There is in fact just one player left on the course: Matt Kuchar, who stopped after hitting his tee shot on 18 while his playing partners in the final group finished their round.

pic.twitter.com/zTVFYedH57

— Masters Burner (@ANGC_burner) August 12, 2024

This means the tournament isn’t officially complete, even though Kuchar is very much not contending for the win. The championship victory will belong to Aaron Rai, though he now won’t officially be the winner until tomorrow. That’s just one of the presumably numerous knock-on effects of Kuchar’s decision; think of the logistics of any Monday continuation, and then imagine all of those things being required just for one guy.

This image is Matt Kuchar's Mona Lisa: pic.twitter.com/A9zFY7BESQ

— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) August 12, 2024

Kuchar cited wanting to “set an example for Max (Greyserman)” as his reasoning for stopping, which is hilarious coming from a guy who also just hit into the leader in the fairway.

Kuchar hitting into the leaders on 18 and then refusing to finish pic.twitter.com/ZkL5ln3xwS

— John Nucci (@JNucci23) August 12, 2024

Sure, the money matters, but Kuchar has made enough at this point (and certainly more than his playing partners, who thought the light was good enough to play in and have made far less lifetime than Kuchar) that it’s hard to read that choice as anything but ridiculous. On the broadcast, Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman were clearly perplexed by Kuchar’s behavior as it became apparent that he’d be the only player back on Monday morning, with Nantz offering up “I don’t expect we’re going to be bringing you that coverage tomorrow” in a deliciously derisive tone.

What a return for one of golf’s unique heels.