Golf villain exposed by brutal response to technicality

Matt Kuchar might be the biggest villain in golf. Sergio Garcia might be the game’s biggest hothead. It’s what makes this situation so spicy.

Villain or simply correct?

Don’t be fooled by Matt Kuchar’s smile.

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley attacked Kuchar on Saturday, saying Kuchar’s caddie-stiffing incident was just the precursor to his controversial decision not to concede a hole to Sergio Garcia in the quarterfinal at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on Saturday.

Garcia had an eight-foot putt to win the hole and left it four inches short, a frustrating miss.

Worse yet was what followed. Such a tap-in typically is conceded in the Dell Technologies Match Play, and the Spaniard walked up and casually rapped it left-handed. The ball spun around the cup, and he picked it up and walked off the green, assuming he remained 1 down through seven holes.

One problem: Kuchar never formally conceded the putt.

“I saw him off the green. I said, ‘Sergio, I didn’t say anything. I’m not sure how this works out.’ I didn’t want that to be an issue,” Kuchar said.

Matt Kuchar did not have a chance to concede Sergio Garcia's second putt.

Therefore, Garcia lost the hole.

Kuchar told the official he wanted to give Garcia the putt, but that cannot be done retroactively. pic.twitter.com/AJFF8N5J7h

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 30, 2019

So he summoned an official, who told them that the Rules of Golf don’t allow a putt to be conceded after it has been struck. That goes in the book as a four-inch miss by Garcia, and Kuchar going two up in the quarterfinal match he eventually won Saturday.

“It gives an insight into Matt Kuchar,” McGinley told Sky Sports, via the Telegraph.

“You see the smiley, nice Matt Kuchar. You’ve seen the incident with the caddie. There’s a hardness about him. Don’t be fooled by him. I think we saw another illustration of it there.”

Kuchar later said he would have conceded the putt if he could have, but he didn’t have the chance due to Garcia’s quick-moving putt.

Kuchar then went to a rules official to explain the situation, which predictably led to Garcia losing the hole.

The exact moment it all fell apart.

It would prove to be the decisive margin in Kuchar’s 1 up win that powered him to the finals, where he lost to Garcia three and two on Sunday.

“In some ways, I really admire the toughness of him,” McGinley continued. “We’ve seen this year with the caddie thing and how he doubled down on it and now we’ve seen it again. There’s a hardness, a toughness about Matt Kuchar that he puts a big facade up around.”

McGinley’s claims about Kuchar’s actual self come after the former PGA nice guy was busted for stiffing a fill-in caddie after his win at the Mayakoba Classic in November.

Kuchar won the $1.296 million pot, but only paid his caddie, David Giral Ortiz, $5,000.

Ortiz had initially asked for $50,000, but Kuchar deemed the $5,000 payment “fair” after the two had agreed to the fee prior to the tournament.

Kuchar fell under public pressure to reward Ortiz what he wanted, and eventually apologised to Ortiz and said he would pay the total amount he wanted nearly three months after the tournament.

PGA Tour pro James Hahn reacted on Twitter after the Garcia incident, questioning Kuchar’s optics.

“Did Kuchar seriously not give a 6 inch putt to Sergio just now? And called a rules official to confirm he did not give him the putt. Seriously?” Hahn tweeted. “And the announcers are siding with Kuchar? Shame on you guys. Sergio deserves better than that.”

There were no hard feelings.

Kuchar also apologised for his over sensitive refusal to concede the putt to Garcia

“I apologised,” Kuchar said. “I said, ‘I don’t like the way this was played out.’ He said, ‘You can concede a hole.’ I thought about it and said, ‘I don’t like that idea, either.’” What didn’t I like about it? It’s hard to say other than I kind of just stuck to what the rules official said the rule was.”

The pair even released a video on Tuesday (AEDT), the day after Kuchar’s loss to Kevin Kisner in the final of the tournament, where Garcia attempted to take the heat off Kuchar.

“I want to tell you what happened in the aftermath is just incorrect, wrong, shouldn’t happen,” Kuchar said.

“I want to tell you Sergio handled the thing extremely well. He missed the putt, he came off seven and he said, ‘You know what, it’s your hole’.

“I told him how bad I felt. It didn’t feel right at all, you never want to win a hole like that on a technicality.

“I really don’t like how this played out.

“No shade needs to be thrown in that direction at all.”

.@TheSergioGarcia and Matt Kuchar talked through Saturday's Match Play drama. 👀 pic.twitter.com/Lb8ivncT78

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) April 1, 2019

Garcia was quick to say that it started with him.

“It’s quite simple — I screwed up,” he said. “Obviously, I missed my putt and I kind of tapped it with the back of my putter before he said anything. Yeah, it’s a loss of hole. I understand that.”

He said his issue was Kuchar telling him he didn’t say the putt was good that he didn’t want to win the hole that way.

“So I was like, ‘OK, it’s fine. What do you want to do? Because there are many options that you can do if you don’t want to take the hole, even though I’ve already lost that hole,” Garcia said. “But obviously, he didn’t like any of the options that were there.”

Originally published as Golf villain exposed by brutal response to technicality