Matt Kuchar reflects on breakout 2010 season
This past August, Matt Kuchar capped off a breakout season on the PGA Tour by winning the Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour play-offs.
Despite only one victory in 2010, Kuchar finished at the top of the money list, thanks to the win at the Barclays, 11 top-10 finishes, three third-place finishes, and one runner-up finish.
After making the cut in 23 of his 26 starts, Kuchar earned $4,910,477 on the season, beating out the likes of Jim Furyk and Ernie Els. And Kuchar has noticed the extra attention he receives on the golf course these days.
“It's probably the extra time commitment that's involved — everything from signing extra autographs to handling additional media requests,” Kuchar told Golf Magazine of what has changed
for him in a recent interview. “I used to be able to practice as much as I wanted to, and come and go pretty much as I pleased, but that's started to change a bit recently.”
But Kuchar says he’s feeling the love. And his broad smile that endeared him to golf fans way back at the 1998 Masters and British Open, when he finished low amateur at the age of 20,
seems to be back.
“It's a lot more fun. It's fun to see yourself on a magazine cover, you know, fun things like that. You get a lot more support, a lot more fanfare.”
Kuchar’s best moment of the 2010 season involved his young family.
“Having the kids run out on the green with my wife after The Barclays,” said Kuchar when asked about his best moment of the year. “We got some fun pictures of them running out on the green.
It's something as a player, and then as a father, that you really aspire to — you can't wait to have that happen to you.”
Kuchar finished T10 at this year’s PGA Championship. He said his solid finish at the final major of the year hopefully will help his confidence in majors down the road.
“To get myself in contention, to have the lead after 36 holes, tells me that if I can do it for 36 holes, then I really ought to be able to do it for 72 holes. I think I have the knowledge
now that this is in my grasp, that winning major championships is something that I can do.”
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