Kuchar surges late for top-five Masters finish

Matt Kuchar was steady during the first three rounds of the Masters.

That continued on the front nine Sunday in the final round. But the back nine was dynamic as Kuchar surged to a final-round 67, including a 5-under 31 on the back nine, to end up at 5 under and tied for fourth.

The highlight of the tournament for Kuchar came on the 16th hole Sunday with an ace.

“What a thrill. It’s funny, that hole has given me problems in the past,” Kuchar said. “I typically play a fade, and to that left pin, I seem to be on the right side more often than not with a very challenging two-putt. And I said, ‘This year, go ahead and release it, don’t worry about the water’ and just flushed a shot that went straight at it, and it looked great the whole way. I still would like to see the highlights. I would like to see if I got the Bridgestone B kind of lined up just right before it trickled in. I haven’t seen the whole thing.

“But it certainly was such a thrill, and you kind of have the build-up, which is so much fun, the anticipation, and more often than not the ball slides by, and guys get real excited and then a little ‘Awww,’ gets released. And when (the fans) flipped out, it was just kind of pandemonium on the tee box and what a thrill.”

After Kuchar took his ball out of the cup, he signed it and handed it to a young fan behind the green.

“No, no, I didn’t know him at all. I think you see kids of a certain age, and you know that a memento will be special to them,” Kuchar said. “The cool part of our job is making a kid’s day. And we have an opportunity to do that quite often. With that hole-in-one, I’ve got enough hole-in-one balls. I don’t save them, so I figured this would make a kid’s day and make a kid’s year. It’s one of the neat things that we can do.”

That wasn’t the only highlight for Kuchar, however, as he had a run of three straight birdies Sunday, starting on the 12th hole. And he only had one bogey on back nine the entire tournament.

“That’s really good. That’s really good,” Kuchar said. “Certainly the way 11 played those first two days, just immensely hard. To make one bogey just those first two days on the back nine was great, and to keep going over the weekend was some good golfing for sure.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2017 at 8:13 PM with the headline "Kuchar surges late for top-five Masters finish."