Match Play Championship: Kuchar tops Mahan for win
BY DOUG FERGUSON Associated Press
Monday, February 25, 2013
2/25/13 at 5:57 AM
MARANA, Ariz. - Even in the most stressful form of golf, Matt Kuchar and his easy smile made the Match Play Championship look like a weekend game with his buddies.
It was fun when he built a 4-up lead at the turn. And when former Oklahoma State standout Hunter Mahan threw his best golf at him during a wild back nine Sunday at Dove Mountain, Kuchar never looked rattled, never felt as if the match belonged to anyone but him, and never lost the lead.
Kuchar kept momentum on his side with four birdies on the back nine, the last conceded on the 17th hole for a 2-and-1 victory. He captured his first World Golf Championship and put his name in the conversation as among the most lethal players in match play.
In his case, looks are deceiving.
"Match play I find to be such an amazing, unique format, so much fun to play and so much pressure," Kuchar said. "It seems like each hole there's so much momentum riding and so much pressure on every hole. To come out on top after six matches of playing the top 64 guys in the world, it's an incredible feeling."
Mahan, trying to join Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners of the Match Play Championship, had gone 169 holes without trailing dating to the opening round last year until Kuchar won the fourth hole of the championship with a par.
Mahan never caught up, though it wasn't from a lack of effort. Every time he cut into the deficit, Kuchar answered the challenge - a 15-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole with Mahan in tight, and a 10-foot birdie putt on the 15th with Mahan poised to cut the lead to one hole.
"He does it differently," said Mahan, who had to get past the ultra-intense Ian Poulter in the semifinals earlier Sunday.
"I think he really enjoys playing. When you play against him, you know what you're going to get. You're going to get a competitive guy who's probably not going to make mistakes."
This time, it was Mahan who made the mistakes. He allowed Kuchar to win consecutive holes with pars, and Mahan fell further behind when Kuchar hit pitching wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the par-3 sixth and Mahan hit a poor second shot that kept him from matching birdies with Kuchar on the par-5 eighth.
But even 4 down at the turn, there was never a dull moment on the back nine.
Kuchar was 1 up on the 17th hole when both drove into the bunker. Their golf balls were only a few feet apart, but Mahan's had sunk slightly in the sand, making it difficult for him to get a clean hit. He came up woefully short, the ball rambling through the desert until it landed in a bush. It took him four shots to reach the green, and with Kuchar only about 4 feet away, Mahan conceded the birdie and the match.
Kuchar became the second player in the last three years to win the Match Play Championship without ever playing the 18th hole. His record in this event improved to 15-3, the highest winning percentage of anyone who has played at least 10 matches. He has reached the quarterfinals each of the last three years, and this time went all the way.
In the semifinals Sunday, Kuchar had no trouble against Jason Day in a 4-and-3 win.
Mahan hit a series of remarkable wedge shots in beating Poulter, 4 and 3, in his semifinal. He twice hit difficult chips inside 5 feet to win holes, and then seized control with a chip-in from about 70 feet on the 12th hole to take command.
Day defeated Poulter in the consolation match, 1 up.
It was the first all-American final in five years at the Match Play Championship, and Kuchar's win gave the Americans a clean sweep of the PGA Tour's West Coast Swing for the second straight year.
He moves to No. 8 in the world and picked up $1.5 million, and now has earned just over $3.2 million from his last two wins.
Original Print Headline: Kuchar keeps lead for Match Play win
Associated Images:
Hunter Mahan lines up a putt on the second green in the final round of play against Matt Kuchar during the Match Play Championship golf tournament Sunday in Marana, Ariz. TED S. WARREN / Assoicated Press
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