Matt Kuchar starts off poorly at World Golf Challenge
It has been a decent and a very consistent season for Matt Kuchar so far. The American has missed only one cut on the PGA Tour this season which shows the level of his consistency.
However, at the Sherwood Golf Club, he could not shoot a low round, in fact it was a below standard performance by Kuchar.
Matt won the Players Championship this season. That shows the level of skill he possesses but shooting one-over, 73, was disappointing.
The American was somewhat troubled when USGA said that rules are being amended to ban the belly putters. Although he does not use a long putter, his putting style is very similar to that of anchoring.
However, after a clarification Kuchar and his putting style were all good.
“I was always confident it was OK,” he contended. “I control both ends of the club and I think that’s what they’re looking for”.
He too is in favour of the ban against the belly putter, but he thinks that it does not give much of an advantage to the other players.
“Putting with a belly putter or an anchored putter is a skill,” he said. “I tried it for six weeks at the beginning of 2012 and I didn’t feel like I got any better. I struggled with figuring out what to do if I started missing putts in a certain direction”.
“Putting conventionally or putting with the grip up my forearm, I kind of have a system of what to do if things get off”.
The conditions were a little overcast at the Sherwood Golf and Country Club but, for a player like Kuchar, they should not have been much of a problem.
The world number 18 was off to a best possible round, as he carded a birdie on the first hole. However, from there on it was a difficult ride. He scored a double bogey on the second hole, which was followed by a stretch of pars.
A bogey on the 8th and 11th hole really pushed his score back. Kuchar did try to pull back some shots but it was a tough ask from there on.
He only managed to pull back two shots by carding birdies on the 13th and the 18th. Matt is currently six strokes behind the leader, Watney and a mammoth effort will be required to win the 2012 World Challenge.
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