Veterans Matt Kuchar, Lee Westwood show they’ve still got it
Matt Kuchar and Lee Westwood, both on the wrong side of 40, ended four-year winless droughts on Sunday; Kuchar in Mexico and Westwood in South Africa
Matt Kuchar and Lee Westwood both have fond memories of April 20, 2014.
It was on that day Kuchar and Westwood last won in their professional careers, Kuchar at the RBC Heritage and Westwood the Maybank Malaysian Open. That is, until Sunday, when both veterans returned to the winner’s circle for the first time in more than four years.
Kuchar set a new tournament scoring record at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, shooting 22-under to beat Danny Lee by one for his eighth PGA Tour title. Westwood, meanwhile, shot a final round eight-under 64 to win the European Tour’s Nedbank Golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa, his 24th title.
The similarities between Kuchar and Westwood don’t end with the length of their winless droughts.
Both were young phenoms who had their careers come to a standstill.
Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur while at Georgia Tech and was low amateur at the 1998 Masters and U.S. Open. After turning professional, he earned his first PGA Tour win in 2002. What followed were years of struggle to get back his tour card. He finally won again in 2009, seven years after his first win. Since then Kuchar has established himself as golf’s most consistent player, racking up top-10 finishes, including 32 since his last victory.
Westwood, meanwhile, won the European Tour’s Order of Merit in 2000 at the age of 27 and reached the top 10 in the World Golf Rankings. By 2002, however, he had fallen outside the top 100. Like Kuchar, Westwood was able to get his career back on track before ascending to No. 1 in the world in 2010.
Both also had a different caddy this week. Westwood had his girlfriend, Helen Storey, carry his bag.
“She’s caddied twice for me this year,” Westwood joked after the tournament. “We lost in a playoff in Denmark [to Matt Wallace at the Made in Denmark in September], and we’ve won here. So I have to have a bit of rethink, not least about who caddies for me, but about percentages.”
Kuchar registered for Mayakoba late, so his regular caddy, John Wood, already had another event scheduled. Instead he used a local caddy, whose name is David but is popularly known in the area simply as ‘El Tucan.’
“He definitely my lucky charm,” Kuchar said on Sunday.
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Kuchar and Westwood are also mentioned among the best golfers never to win a major championship. Westwood has finished runner-up three times, while Kuchar’s best shot came in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, where he lost to Jordan Spieth.
The similarities between the two end in how they went about winning this week. Kuchar came into the final round with a four-shot lead. By the time he teed off at the 18th, however, the lead was down to one. Kuchar’s drive on the 18th bounced in the rough before taking a lucky roll back into the fairway. Just off the green with his second shot, he two-putted for par to save the victory.
The 45-year-old Westwood was three shots behind to begin his final round in South Africa, but after making eagle on the second hole and birding five of his last eight, he beat Sergio Garcia by three shots at 15-under.
“I’ve still got it, I guess,” he said.
Kuchar’s win doesn’t just end a four-year winless drought. It comes after he struggled through a disappointing year in 2018, where he made just four top-10s in 24 events. He admits struggling just to make cuts wore on him last season.
“I was hugely frustrated at times last season,” he said. “I don’t know if I pressed. But, I’ve been in several years where missing cuts just wasn’t really in my vocabulary. I missed more than my share last year [four], which is really frustrating.”
Now 40, Kuchar says this win gives him confidence going forward not just for 2019, but for the rest of his career.
“Winning a tournament always helps breed confidence, and confidence goes a long way in this game. Knowing that I can do it, knowing that 40 is just a number,” he said.
The victories by Kuchar and Westwood showed, even though both are in their 40s, that they’re still capable of recapturing some of the magic of their younger days. Kuchar, for one, says he feels young at heart.
“Turns out 40 may be the new 20,” he said. “That’s the way I’m going to try to look at it.”