The First Major by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

RICKIE FOWLER DIDN’T play especially well the next two weeks, but it really didn’t matter. His play at Bethpage Black in the Barclays—the last nine holes notwithstanding—was more than enough for Davis Love to justify his selection.

The same was true of Matt Kuchar. If Fowler was everyone’s little brother figure—even though he was no longer the youngest player on the team—then Kuchar was the court jester. Most golf fans would never have known that.

“His image with the public is a hundred percent different than who he really is,” said Zach Johnson, a close friend and a neighbor on Sea Island, the Georgia enclave where a number of tour players live. “He smiles and says all the right things, and then you get behind closed doors and he’s the devil.”

Johnson meant that—of course—in an endearing way. He was a frequent victim of Kuchar’s, often opening his locker to find some kind of poster—sometimes of a man, sometimes of a woman, usually without any clothes on—hanging prominently from the door. Kuchar’s hope was that Johnson might open his locker in the presence of a media member or perhaps a pro-am partner and be forced to explain himself.

His explanation was always quite simple: Kuchar.

Kuchar has a wide, ever-present smile, one that earned him the nickname “Smilin’ Matt,” and has long been a fan favorite because of that smile and his easygoing manner. Beneath it, though, Kuchar’s not only a nonstop prankster, he’s one of the brighter, more thoughtful people in the game.

He’s a college graduate in an era when most golfers leave college without a degree. “What was my major in college?” Patrick Reed often says with a smile. “Golf.”

Kuchar could have made a large chunk of money had he chosen to leave Georgia Tech after his sophomore year. He had won the U.S. Amateur in 1997, meaning he was invited to play in the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open the following year. He became something of a sensation at the Masters, playing alongside defending champion Tiger Woods the first two days. In the summer of 1996, Woods had beaten Kuchar in a close U.S. Amateur semifinal, denying Kuchar a Masters spot since both U.S. Amateur finalists qualify for the Masters.

The following April, Woods had won the Masters by twelve shots in his first major as a pro. In 1998, as the Amateur champion, Kuchar was paired with the defending Masters champion—Woods. He made the cut, then shot 68 on Saturday and finished tied for twenty-first—giving him a place in the next year’s Masters, since the top twenty-four finishers were given automatic invites.

Then, at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in June, Kuchar finished T-14—meaning he got to play in the Open the following year since the top fifteen Open finishers qualified.

By then, sponsors were coming out of the woodwork wanting to throw money at Kuchar. He turned them all down and went back to Georgia Tech. Two years later, he graduated with a degree in business management and stunned the golf world by not turning pro.

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