Sony Open Recap: Kuchar Grabs a Victory in Paradise

Matt Kuchar strolled up 18 on Sunday, not a care in the world. He was in Hawaii, his wife and two boys were nearby and he led the Sony Open by three strokes. He was in paradise, figuratively and pretty much literally.

It was far different some 24 hours early, when Kuchar was being grilled – at least as far as golf writers go when trying to get info out of a golfer – for allegedly low-balling his caddie in Mexico back in November, when he won the Mayakoba Golf Classic. That's a bad look for Kuchar. And it's not something likely to fully go away anytime soon. But at least briefly, it did during that Sunday stroll.

Kuchar won the Sony by four strokes over emerging Andrew Putnam at famed Waialae in Honolulu. He has now turned an out-of-nowhere win in Mexico into what could be a career renaissance at age 40. Until Mayakoba, the king of the backdoor top-10 had gone almost five years without a victory. (Kuchar's regular caddie didn't make the trip, so he hired a local looper, David Girl Ortiz, and apparently made an agreement that didn't include the standard 10 percent of the check for winning. Kuchar took home $1.296 million and on Saturday he denied a report that he gave Ortiz a paltry $3,000. Without saying how much he gave him.)

So now Kuchar, who needed about 15 years to win seven times, has won twice in two months. Right before Mayakoba he had fallen to No. 40 in the world, and that was on top of not making the Ryder Cup team for the first time since 2010. Kuchar is now back up to 22nd in the OWGR.

So how the heck did this happen? Especially to a guy who has been the PGA Tour poster boy for going out week after week and taking home gobs and gobs of cash while outwardly showing zero disappointment when the chance to win didn't pan out.

To cut to the chase, the answer is: Who knows? But we will say that both Mayakoba and Waialae are shorter courses on which Kuchar can better compete with today's longer hitters, shot-making tracks for which he has expressed love, often comparing them to playing chess. And both fields were on the weaker side. But Kuchar had played on shorter, shot-making courses in weak fields many times since winning the 2014 RBC Heritage (played on a shorter track with a weaker field).

Of course, Kuchar has always been very good – this was his 100th career top-10. And he's had many close calls. So it could simply be the law of averages. Or maybe the precipitous drop in the rankings and especially exclusion from the Ryder Cup team jolted him. Do we expect Kuchar to further climb the rankings into the top-20 and maybe lower? No, not really.

It's so hard to read a guy who's always smiling – even when he shouldn't be smiling. At least now, Kuchar has a real reason to smile.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Andrew Putnam
Putnam will of course be disappointed with losing a lead in the final round, but he takes away so many positives. First off, he's reached the top-50 in the world for the first time, zooming from 67th to 45th. If he's stays there – and the way his career is trending that seems like a no-brainer – it opens the door to the biggest tournaments. He led the field in putting and now leads the Tour in putting this season. It's all good for the 29-year-old Putnam.

Chez Reavie
The straight-as-an-arrow Reavie tied for third, and that brought him to the brink to the top-50. He moved from 63rd to 54th and is seeking the same perks Putnam wants for being in the top-50. Unsurprisingly, Reavie ranked first in the field in strokes gained: tee to green. That plays well every single week.

Hudson Swafford
Swafford won the CareerBuilder Challenge two years ago this week to climb to No. 89 in the world. And then he proceeded to all but fall off the golfing map. He entered the Sony at No. 317 in the OWGR. Still, toward the end of last season he started to show some signs. At Waialae, it all came together with a tie for third. Swafford's two-year exemption for winning ends this year, but he should finish well inside the top-125 to keep his card.

Corey Conners
Not only did Conners have to Monday qualify, he had to survive a playoff to get into the main draw. So tying for third is not too shabby. Last season, Conners barely missed the top-125, then flamed out in the Web.com playoffs. So while he had been playing pretty well late in the season, he had nothing to show for it. But now he's has a solo second (at the Sanderson) and a tie for third in the early going, and will be in the field this week at the Desert Classic. The 27-year-old Conners is playing out of the 126-150 category (for now), but really, he's so much better.

Keith Mitchell
Mitchell began Sunday in the final grouping, shot 4-over on the front nine and that was that. He tied for 16th. Mitchell is a very good young player. He hits the ball a ton, he tied for 31st on Tour in greens in regulation last season and he had a top-20 in a playoff event (the Dell). The 27-year-old Mitchell is on the rise.

Brian Stuard
Note to self (and to y'all): Play Stuard next year at the Sony no matter what. Truth be told, we did it this year. Stuard is an aging player who had a horrible fall season. But he plays very well at Waialae. His tie for eighth was his fourth top-10 there in the past seven years. On shorter courses that place an emphasis on shot-making, Stuard could be a consideration. But we wouldn't fault you for not turning to Stuard again until next year's Sony.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama is now down to 30th – thirtieth! – in the world rankings. He played well for the first three rounds, then plummeted on Sunday, bogeying the first two holes and never recovering. He shot 3-over 73, fell 33 spots on the leaderboard and tied for 51st. Some people may think last season was an aberration and Matsuyama will bounce back to his top-five status. We're not one of them.

Gary Woodland
Woodland did not have a great first two days. On Saturday, however, he cratered with a 6-over 76 and MDFed. Woodland has actually played a lot of golf – twice in December when most guys are off. Then he played the Tournament of Champions last week and had a mentally tough loss when Xander Schauffele passed him on Sunday with a 62. That was after learning his grandmother had passed away. So Woodland had been carrying a lot on his shoulders since last week, and it likely finally got too heavy on Saturday. After some time off, Woodland will be fine. He's been playing great.

Paul Casey
Casey, who had finished top-20 in his first four starts of the season, missed the cut. The Englishman hardly ever misses a cut. Twice all last season, once the season before. But that one was the Sony. So maybe he should just not play the Sony. Or at least let's all not pick him at the Sony.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth went to Hawaii last week after getting married during the fall and not practicing much since then and expectations were low and blah, blah, blah. For goodness sakes, this is Jordan Spieth. Or at least he used to be. At Waialae, he missed the cut, looked particularly uncomfortable and appeared frustrated at times. He has dropped another spot in the world rankings to 18th. Spieth has committed to Torrey Pines in two weeks, when the field will be much stronger. We shall see.