Kuchar keen to drop ‘Major club’ membership

Seven US Tour victories put Matt Kuchar in the current crop of contenders for ‘the best player who has never won a Major’.

Matt Kuchar has been Mr Consistency over the past two years.

But his success has seen him join a club no top golfer wants to be in.

The 35-year-old has won the Players Championship, the WGC Match Play Championship, the Memorial, and the RBC Heritage.

Beaten in a play-off in the Houston Open the week before The Masters, he then finished fifth at Augusta after starting the final round one stroke behind eventual winner, Bubba Watson.

But as things stand, all his seven US Tour victories have done is put him in the current crop of contenders for ‘the best player who has never won a Major’.

Alongside him are the likes of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Henrik Stenson, Brandt Snedeker and Steve Stricker.

Kuchar aims to have his name taken off that list two weeks from tonight when the US Open is concluded at Pinehurst No 2 in North Carolina, and his preparation starts tomorrow morning.

“I came close at Augusta, and it brought home to me that you don’t get many opportunities at winning a Major,” he admits. “Obviously I knew the course, so I was very happy with my preparation.

“But Pinehurst has undergone a lot of changes since the US Open was last there in 2005, so I don’t know what to expect other than no rough and a lot of sandy waste areas!

“I’ll find out what are designated sandy waste areas and what are bunkers, and what they will do to make sure we don’t have an issue as there was at the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

“I’ll be there this Monday/Tuesday and play the course, which makes the Tuesday/Wednesday of the Open week a whole lot easier because the hard work is done. Your preparation on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament is just a refresher, and I’m not burning myself out.”

Kuchar is arguably in his prime. Until last weekend at the Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, he had not missed a cut since the US PGA in 2012.

He protests: “My game is really good, even though that happened. I hit the ball good, putted really well, but it is just one of the strange things about this game.

“Colonial is one of my favourites. I’ve had some great results there. But that golf course can just creep up on you. It’s one of the sneaky golf courses, but I must admit I was a bit surprised to have the weekend off.”

US Opens are renowned for narrow fairways and deep grass. You look at double winners of the title in Andy North and Lee Janzen and it underlines the fact that straight hitters start out with an advantage. But this year there is no deep rough, just sandy waste areas that were Dustin Johnson’s downfall at the aforementioned PGA at Whistling Straits.

If a ball lands in these waste areas, the player can find his ball lying in a footprint and there is no relief!

So could Kuchar’s driver hold the key to that elusive Major?

Jordan Spieth, who’ll believe he has a decent chance himself, says: “Kuch hits the ball extremely straight, and he has a very good short game. So he always has a great chance on a tough golf course.”