Forty may not be the new 20, but it has created sort of a PGA Tour version of a mid-life crisis for Matt Kuchar, who is not only playing as good as the “young gun” 20-somethings but he’s beating them too.
Kuchar hit the big 4-0 over the summer, and spent the early part of this milestone year in a career slump. 2018 was his worst season in some time, as the former top-10 machine mustered just four in 24 starts, while barely threatening a tournament lead at any point.
As of November, his winless streak had spanned four-plus years.
However, a new season and a new decade has suddenly ushered in some of the best golf of Kuchar’s career. He won the Mayakoba Golf Classic in November, and just two starts later, he has landed in the winner’s circle again, as a back-nine flurry of birdies left him four strokes clear of Andrew Putnam on Sunday at the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, the second PGA Tour event of the 2019 calendar year.
With the win, the famously majorless Kuchar has engendered optimism that the biggest victory of his career has yet to come.