Nerves of steel lead Kuchar to triumph
SINGAPORE: American Matt Kuchar put up an inspirational performance that demonstrated his mental fortitude when he overcame a calamitous triplebogey on the seventh hole by charging back with three birdies on his back-nine to win the Singapore Open yesterday.
Despite a host of Asian Tour stars including defending champion and 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Jazz Janewattananond piling the pressure on him, Kuchar showed he has the resilience to bounce back on the day that matters most at the Serapong course, Sentosa Golf Club.
Holding a three-shot lead at the start of the day, Kuchar extended his lead to four with his first birdie on four. However, the American ran into trouble on the par-five seventh when his tee shot came up against the root of a tree and he missed the ball on his first attempt to punch it out from the trees.
The nightmare continued when his approach shot flew left of the green, hit a cart path and went out of bounds. After hitting his sixth shot onto the front of the green, Kuchar eventually managed to hole a crucial putt from 10-feet for a triple-bogey eight.
But Kuchar mounted his comeback on the back-nine with birdies on 11 and 16 as his closest rivals fell by the wayside. The galleries then roared in unison as he went on to sink a birdie putt from almost 20 feet to win the Singapore event with a final round oneunder-par 70.
“There are certainly a lot of great players here on this Tour, so it feels fantastic to come out on top,” said Kuchar.
“I’m awfully proud of being able to bounce back from adversity and being able to not let hard things get the best of me. And seven was a disastrous hole to make triple bogey there,” he added. “I was pleased, really pleased to be able to bounce back.”
Former world No.1 Justin Rose of England finished in second place after posting a four-day total of 15-under 269 while Jazz took outright third place with a closing 71 at the US$1 million event which was sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO).
“For me, it is a good first week of the year. Four rounds in the 60s, consistent golf, got into contention, felt some of those nerves, which is great. A lot to take from the week. This is a nice start and I feel I can build some momentum from it,” said Rose.
Thai ace Jazz was impressed with Kuchar’s recovery.
“Matt [Kuchar] was amazing you know, after that eight he still recovered and won with class. I mean, it’s just amazing to see what top players in the world can do, and really good to experience it up close,” said Jazz.
“There are many things to improve and after playing alongside Matt I can see that I need to do a lot of things. It’s really good opportunity to play with these guys and see what it takes to step up to the next level.”
Korean teenager Kim Joo-Hyung signed for a 71 to take fourth place along with one of the four tickets to The Open at Royal St George’s in July.
The other three spots went to Canada’s Richard T Lee, Thailand’s Poom Saksansin and Japan’s Ryosuke Kinoshita.
LEADING FINAL ROUND SCORES (par-71)
266 — Matt Kuchar (USA) 66-68-62-70
269 — Justin Rose (ENG) 68-66-68-67
270 — Jazz Janewattananond (THA) 67-65-67-71 271 — Kim Joo-Hyung (KOR) 67-66-67-71
272 — Richard T Lee (CAN) 66-69-65-72
273 — Poom Saksansin (THA) 69-69-70-65, Ryosuke Kinoshita (JPN) 70-69-67-67
275 — Danny Masrin (INA) 69-72-66-68, Rashid Khan (IND) 70-66-69-70, Miguel Tabuena (PHI) 68-65-66-76 276 — Travis Smyth (AUS) 69-68-71-68, Tomoharu Otsuki (JPN) 69-67-71-69, Rikuya Hoshino (JPN) 66-73-68-69
277 — Gunn Charoenkul (THA) 66-70-73-68, Kosuke Hamamoto (THA) 65-75-68-69