Evening Telegraph (First Edition)

Kuchar’s apology for delay

MATT Kuchar has apologised to everyone affected by his decision not to complete the final hole of the Wyndham Championsh­ip on Sunday evening.

Kuchar was the only player in the field to return to Sedgefield Country Club yesterday after exercising his right not to finish the 72nd hole of the weatheraff­ected tournament.

Needing a win to continue his run as the only player to reach the Fedex Cup play-offs every year since their inception in 2007, Kuchar was out of contention in a 10-way tie for 12th when he hooked his tee shot on the 18th into the trees.

Play was suspended when the other two players in the final group, Max Greyserman and Chad Ramey, had also teed off, giving all three the option to complete the hole as daylight quickly faded.

But while Ramey and Greyserman – who had surrendere­d a four-shot lead after 13 holes but could still catch England’s Aaron Rai with an eagle – opted to finish, Kuchar informed tournament officials he would mark his ball and return a day later.

The 46-year-old American duly did so and resumed play at 8am local time, receiving line-of-sight relief from a scoreboard before hitting his second shot short of the green, then hitting the pin with his pitch and tapping in for par.

Speaking to a small group of reporters after finishing yesterday, Kuchar said: “Nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn’t finish...

“Again, it stinks to... nobody wants to be that guy that’s showing up today, one person, one hole. So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out.”