Possible Player of the Year Kuchar Wins Barclays

Tiger’s winless and sits on the Ryder Cup bubble. Phil hasn’t really threatened since Augusta. International players have won three of this year’s four majors and nearly half of the events on the schedule. No player on Tour has as many as three wins this year.

A strange season on the PGA Tour crawls toward the finish line, carried on the unassuming shoulders of golf’s most anonymous superstar. In a year marked by parity, globalization and the emergence of a slew of young guns, the best player in the world right now just might be a quiet 32-year-old from Winter Park, Fla.

Matt Kuchar leads the PGA Tour in top-10 finishes with 10. He made the cut in all four majors, with two top-10 finishes. He leads the Tour in scoring average (69.62). He leads the Tour’s All-Around category (a cumulative ranking based on all the other standard categories).

And after yesterday’s Sudden Death win in the Barclays, the opening leg of the FedExCup playoffs, he leads in perhaps the most important metric for success: earnings.

“It’s been an awesome year,” said Kuchar, the new leader in the clubhouse for PGA Tour Player of the Year honors. “I’ve been so happy with my performance this year. And I knew it was a matter of time. It was one of those things that I knew if I put myself in contention enough times I was going to break through. And I’m awfully excited to have it here at the Barclays Classic.”

These playoffs may still lack resonance with the casual fan, but they’re gaining a foothold with the players. Either that, or Kuchar’s just playing loyal soldier in touting his Tour’s contrived attempt to remain relevant as football approaches. “It’s a great place, the start of our FedEx Playoffs,” he said. “I don’t know if I would put many events much higher on the list.”

One may doubt the playoff format, but there’s no doubting the field that Kuchar beat yesterday. Almost without exception, the best players on the PGA Tour were on hand at Ridgewood Country Club for Kuchar’s coronation as American golf’s newest standard-bearer.

“There’s nothing like the feeling of winning a PGA Tour golf tournament,” he said. “You feel like you are the best player in the world for this week. I mean, it’s just an amazing feeling to think there’s 125 of the best players in the world started this week and I came out first. It’s an amazing feeling and one I’m awfully proud of.”

The win makes Kuchar the front-runner for the Cup and clinches a spot in the season-ending Tour Championship, held at Atlanta’s East Lake Country Club, familiar turf for the Georgia Tech alum.

“It’s been No. 1 on my goal list of what I’d like to accomplish for my year on the PGA TOUR for a number of years,” Kuchar said. “I’ve wanted to get to East Lake. It’s a home game. It’s a course I know. It would be great to have friends and family to be there. To lock it up is a great feeling. It’s been a great year. But I knew even when I was coming in 9th into here, I knew there was potential to drop out. With five times the amount of points, I knew I had to keep playing.”

Hero Shot

Kuchar was lucky even to be in a playoff; he needed an untimely three-putt from Martin Laird on the 72nd hole to force Sudden Death. But once he got there, he capitalized with one of the best shots of his career. His 7-iron approach from the right rough on 18 trickled to within three feet of the cup.

“I saw Martin play his 72nd hole and it looked like he had a similar shot,” Kuchar said. “Looked like he was in the left rough, looked like he chased one up to the back. I was basically trying to hit a similar shot. I was looking to have it just land 15 yards short of the green, start chasing up. And I went with a 7-iron, the lie was pretty good. I was kind of deep enough in the rough that it ended up being a pretty good lie. And the shot came out beautifully. I ran up to that back right bank and saw the crowd just all of a sudden, the momentum build and they went just like a wave of people standing up and cheering. I knew it was getting good.

“That was an exciting way to kind of cap off this tournament.”

Laird squandered his moment at center stage with his untimely three-putt in regulation. It was all set up for him — gorgeous fiancée standing greenside, Jim Nantz prepared with an appropriately cheesy remark — but his birdie try slid eight feet past, and his comebacker never scared the hole.

“I’m really happy how I played today,” Laird insisted. “As I said, I really didn’t have my game going great off the tee especially and I holed a lot of putts out there for par just to stay in the position I was.

“So I’ve never done that before, 3-putted the (last hole to lose a) tournament, but to be honest, I thought I’d probably be a little more gutted than I am. I’m going to take a lot out of this week and move a lot up in the FedExCup. The way I’m playing, I don’t see why I can’t be in contention the next few weeks.”

Wie Be Jammin’

She’s still not old enough to drink, but Michelle Wie has seemingly lived a lifetime’s worth of ups and downs in her golf career. Right now, consider her up. Wie claimed her second career LPGA Tour win with a wire-to-wire performance at the CN Canadian Women’s Open. There’s still time for the 20-year-old former phenom to harness her considerable talent and claim the mantel of women’s golf standard-bearer.

“It feels awesome,” she said. “It feels absolutely fantastic. It’s been a long time since November (her first win), and it feels great.

“You know, I just feel like I haven’t been playing as well as I wanted to the last couple of months, and just really makes me more motivated for the rest of the season.”

Team Europe

European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie finalized his squad yesterday, and a formidable group it is. Montie added three-time major winner Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari as his captain’s picks, joining the nine automatic qualifiers: Ross Fisher, Peter Hanson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Martin Kaymer, Grame McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Francesco Molinari, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood. To get a feel for just how deep the European pool of talent is, consider the players Montie didn’t pick — Justin Rose, a two-time PGA Tour winner this season, and Paul Casey, the No. 8 player in the World Golf Ranking.

Edoardo Molinari joins brother Francesco on the strength of his win yesterday at the European Tour’s Johnnie Walker World Championships.

Here’s Montie’s explanation for his captain’s picks:

“Padraig Harrington, three major championships in the last three years; stature of Padraig Harrington, and someone that we feel that nobody in match-play golf wants to play; a great competitor, and someone that will bring everything to the team that we know about European golf. “In Luke Donald, we have someone that can compete in foursomes and in fourball golf, and not just in singles record; he’s played seven times in Ryder Cup play, Luke Donald, and has only lost in one particular game.

“And from Italy, Edoardo Molinari, what can one say about today’s performance at the Johnnie Walker Championship here at Gleneagles. I think in my time, as a player on The European Tour, I’ve been a member here for 24 years, I don’t think I’ve seen a finish of that quality under such pressure by anyone, ever. And all credit goes to him for having to come here, having to win, doing so, and joining his brother as the first brother partnership that’s ever played on either team in the Ryder Cup, and all credit to all three of those players to join a fantastic nine.

“And I’ve always said at the start of this campaign, that we have a fabulously 12 strong team, and I think you see the team there, as it stands, and I think you’ll all agree how strong it is.”