Matt Kuchar fired a superb final round of 64 to beat Luke Donald by a stroke and win the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.
Matt Kuchar fired a superb final round of 64 to beat Luke Donald by a stroke and win the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.
Kuchar began the final round four strokes behind the Englishman but he came storming out of the blocks, posting six birdies over the first nine holes to go out in 30 and move to the top of the leaderboard.
The American added a further birdie at the 10th then rattled off a string of six pars. He stood on the difficult par-3 17th tee with a one-stroke lead. After hitting a superb shot to within three feet of the cup, that advantage looked destined to be doubled, but incredibly he missed the birdie putt, then also missed the one coming back to rack up a bogey four.
That meant he and Donald were tied at the top. Kuchar had just the difficult 18th to play while the Englishman had four holes remaining. Kuchar hit a solid drive into the wind, but his second shot came up short of the green in a bunker.
It looked as though Kuchar was in danger of blowing another Sunday lead. He had a lead, or share of the lead, at some point in the final round in each of his last three starts on the PGA Tour. But, composing himself, Kuchar splashed out of the bunker. The ball landed perfectly on the green and rolled towards the cup. It caught the right edge of the hole and dropped in for a birdie three.
A roar went up that could be heard way back on the 15th green as Donald was standing over a birdie putt. He didn’t back away when the noise reached him and he missed from 15 feet. He needed to find a birdie on one of the last three holes to match Kuchar’s clubhouse total but he couldn’t do it. Three pars meant he had to settle for second place.
"I probably should have backed off that putt, because I did hear it, " said Donald. "Someone told me he holed out from the front bunker.”
For Kuchar the victory was an important one and he expressed his satisfaction at crossing the line after three straight weeks in contention.
“I thought Houston I was in control, I thought that was a tournament I was going to win. But that didn’t work out,” he said. “I played some really good golf at Augusta last week, and I thought this is where it’s supposed to work out. I kept wanting after things didn’t work out in San Antonio, just give me another chance. Amazing to have four straight weeks of chances on four completely different golf courses. I take a lot of pride in playing good week in and week out. This has been some excellent play.”
RBC Heritage Harbour Town Golf Links, Hilton Head, South Carolina Apr 17-20, purse $5,800,000, par 71
1 Matt Kuchar (USA) 66 73 70 64 273 $1,044,000 2 Luke Donald (Eng) 70 69 66 69 274 $626,400 T3 Ben Martin (USA) 69 68 71 67 275 $336,400 T3 John Huh (USA) 71 68 68 68 275 $336,400 T5 Brian Stuard (USA) 69 72 68 68 277 $220,400 T5 Scott Brown (USA) 70 69 71 67 277 $220,400 T7 Jim Furyk (USA) 71 66 71 70 278 $187,050 T7 Brian Harman (USA) 69 71 69 69 278 $187,050 T9 Russell Knox (Sco) 69 72 68 70 279 $156,600 T9 William McGirt (USA) 66 76 71 66 279 $156,600 T9 Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 69 72 70 68 279 $156,600
Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage
