Six Lessons From a Season Watching Really Good Golfers

THE OVERVIEW By Ben Everill, PGATOUR.COM For a fair chunk of Sunday at The Open Championship, it appeared Matt Kuchar was going to join the list of major champions. But as history shows, a late turnaround and blitz from Jordan Spieth snatched that dream away from the man they call ‘Kuch.’ So now this season becomes a very interesting one for the seven-time PGA TOUR winner, whose resume includes a signature win at the 2012 PLAYERS Championship. Kuchar will turn 40 in June and is coming off a season with nine top-10s. He has made the TOUR Championship the last eight seasons, finishing inside the top 20 of the FedExCup every year since he was runner up in 2010. He’s 11 of 11 when it comes to making the FedExCup Playoffs. Will he continue to be a factor against the greater depth and youth on TOUR or will things start to get harder for the smiling assassin? Statistically he remains far above average. Inside the top 70 in all Strokes Gained categories last season, including 16th overall. While he continues to putt well and drive the ball accurately, any perceived loss in distance will be overcome. Consistency has always been a hallmark of Kuchar’s game. Now he needs to take it to another level in the big weeks. Not much has to change – his game was good enough last season to finish inside the top-16 of all four majors, inside the top 5 in two of them – but after getting so close at Royal Birkdale last year, perhaps Kuchar will now turn disappointment into major victory. Click here to follow Ben on Twitter BY THE NUMBERS FEDEXCUP Current 2017-18 position: 107th Playoff appearances: 11 TOUR Championship appearances: 8 Best result: 2nd (2010) INSIGHTS FROM OUR INSIDERS PGATOUR.COM’s Insiders offer their expert views on what to expect from Matt Kuchar in 2018. TOUR INSIDER by Cameron Morfit The remarkably consistent Kuchar shows no signs of slowing down even at 39. Last season he was again deadly accurate off the tee (66 percent, ranking him 31st on TOUR), putted better than average, and registered his career-best finish in a major with an unforgettable runner-up to Jordan Spieth at the Open Championship. Kuchar has made every U.S. Presidents and Ryder Cup team since 2010, and will most likely keep on doing so for the foreseeable future, but whether this seven-time TOUR winner will finally add a major title to his resume remains an open question. Click here to follow Cameron on Twitter FANTASY INSIDER by Rob Bolton Just when you think that Father Time is applying pressure, he hangs up another quality performance. You want reliability? You got it. He’s competed in eight consecutive TOUR Championships. You want durability? Sure. Since 2011, he’s averaged more than 24 starts per season and hasn’t withdrawn during any. Quite simply, he’s an easy late first-rounder because he knows who he is and we know what he delivers. It’s hard to believe that the big 4-0 lingers on June 21, 2018, but it had to arrive at some point, it’s just that it won’t matter. Click here to follow Rob on Twitter EQUIPMENT INSIDER by Jonathan Wall Kuchar has anywhere from six to seven different equipment brands in the bag. Scaled back the amount of forward press in his stroke, which required Bettinardi to make a new KM2 D.A.A.S. putter with new loft and offset specs (5 degrees of loft and 1 shaft worth of offset). Currently carries three different wedge brands (Bridgestone, Callaway and Cleveland). Began using a new Bridgestone Tour B XS golf ball at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Click here to follow Jonathan on Twitter STYLE INSIDER by Greg Monteforte Kuchar is a case study in how simple style tweaks can make a big impact. During the past couple of years, he has ditched the pleats and the mismatched hats and moved to flat front trousers and exotic skin belts. As a result, his looks are cleaner and more modern. The last piece of the fashion puzzle for Kuch is slimmer fitting shirts. Click here to follow Greg on Twitter

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After a week off for the men’s Olympic golf competition, the PGA TOUR schedule resumes with the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Olympian Justin Thomas will look to defend his title from 2020 while 2019 winner, Brooks Koepka, is coming into the week with four top-6 finishes in his last five TOUR events. FIELD NOTES: World No.1 Jon Rahm will not be in the field after testing positive for COVID-19 and withdrawing from the Olympic competition… FedExCup leader and recent Open Championship winner Collin Morikawa will look to add another WGC to his trophy case. He won the WGC-Workday Championship earlier this year… There will be 66 players competing in Memphis including 48 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings… There are two spots open for a golfer who wins the gold medal at the Olympics (if not already in the field) and if they move inside the top-50 in the OWGR when the next edition of the ranking is released on Aug. 2… Fifteen countries will be represented… The only other golfer inside the top 50 in the world who is not teeing it up in Memphis is Christiaan Bezuidenhout. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 FedExCup points COURSE: TPC Southwind, par 70, 7,233 yards. The long-time PGA TOUR host club was elevated to WGC status for 2019. Designed by Ron Prichard (with TOUR players Fuzzy Zoeller and Hubert Green as consultants) the most recent update came in 2004 under the eye of TOUR winner Loren Roberts. The course is a solid test with nearly 100 bunkers and 10 water hazards and undulating zoysia fairways. STORYLINES: With some of golf’s top names, including the defending champion Justin Thomas, competing in the Olympics, one thing to keep an eye on will be the fatigue factor of those who played in Tokyo and then traveled back to the United States… This is the final WGC event of the season. The previous winners included Collin Morikawa (WGC-Workday) and Billy Horschel (WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play)… Previous success at TPC Southwind has already been an indicator of comfort at the WGC contested at the same course. Daniel Berger, a two-time winner of the FedEx St. Jude Classic finished T2 last year, while Dustin Johnson (a two-time FedEx St. Jude Classic winner and six-time WGC winner) finished T12… Nine of the top-10 golfers in the FedExCup standings are teeing it up in Memphis, with the notable exception being Rahm. Bryson DeChambeau, who also tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew from the Olympic competition, is back in action. 72-HOLE RECORD: 264, Brooks Koepka (2019) 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Tom Lewis (third round, 2020) LAST TIME: Justin Thomas won by three shots – the same margin of victory as Brooks Koepka the year prior – over a foursome of golfers including Koepka himself, Daniel Berger, Tom Lewis, and Phil Mickelson who finished tied for second. Thomas fired a final-round 65 that included two birdies in his final four holes en route to winning his third PGA TOUR title of the season. This marked Thomas’ 13th career TOUR title and he became the third-youngest to ever reach that mark – the others being Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Lewis’ T2 was his best-career TOUR result and came thanks to shooting a 9-under 61 on Saturday, which matched the course record at TPC Southwind. HOW TO FOLLOW (All times ET) TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday 12 p.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday 7:45 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Featured Groups). Saturday-Sunday, 7:45 a.m.-3 p.m. (Featured Groups), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Holes). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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