PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Matt Kuchar looked beyond the edge of the 16th green at a scene packed with enough stress it could wipe away even his smile.
Across the water was an island green that was awaiting him Sunday in The Players Championship. The guy dressed all in orange and pumping his fist was Rickie Fowler after making a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th to get within two shots of Kuchar.
Kuchar stepped over his 15-footer and answered with a birdie just as big.
“Yeah, absolutely I saw the putt,” Kuchar said. “Watched the thing disappear and he gave a big fist pump. I knew it got him to within two shots and he could birdie 18 to bring it within one. That could have changed the whole scenario of how I would have approached and played 18. So I was really excited to drop that birdie on 16. That was big.”
Everything was big for Kuchar on the TPC Sawgrass — most of all, that smile.
After a three-putt bogey he could afford on the 17th, and a tap-in par on the final hole with his family watching, Kuchar closed with a 2-under-par 70 for a two-shot victory, his fourth career win and by far the biggest in so many ways.
It was his first win in 38 starts on the PGA Tour, dating to The Barclays in 2010. He won $1.71 million, the richest prize in golf, and moved to No. 3 in the Ryder Cup standings and a career-high No. 5 in the world ranking.
Fowler missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the last hole and shot 70 to settle for a four-way tie for second. He was joined by Ben Curtis, who holed a 10-foot birdie on the last hole for a 68; Zach Johnson, who shot 68; and Colorado State graduate Martin Laird, who made bogey on the 18th for a 67.
Laird made the strongest run, tying for the lead with his third consecutive birdie on No. 12. Laird lost his momentum with a poor tee shot on the 14th that led to bogey, and with a bogey on the final hole.
