Kuchar’s blunder overshadows Greyserman’s collapse on wild Wyndham Sunday

Matt Kuchar tried to save Max Greyserman. And, in a sense, he did.

Thanks to Kuchar embarrassing himself — prematurely teeing off on 18 with eventual winner Aaron Rai and several volunteers in the fairway and then refusing to finish because of the darkness — the internet and fans gathered at Sedgefield Country Club alike were distracted from Greyserman’s epic meltdown on No. 14.

Is it worth Kuchar’s 8 a.m. return on Monday morning to play half a hole of golf? Hard to say. But what’s definite at this point is that the final day of the Wyndham Championship will go down as one of the wackiest Sundays of golf in recent memory.

“Obviously stuff happens in golf that sometimes it’s not meant to be,” Greyserman said.

A lot of “stuff,” as Greyserman put it, went down Sunday. Rai, the 29-year-old Englishman, shot a bogey-free final round of 6-under 64 to clinch the win. Over two rounds of golf were played, thanks to the Debby-induced rain delay Thursday. Players coming off their 36th hole of the day folded, placing their hands on their knees and breathing deep, heaving inhales. Greensboro’s Donald Ross masterpiece felt, at times, more like Boylston Street during the Boston Marathon.

Exhibit A: Luke Clanton. The amateur, speaking to the media after his final round of play, was palpably fatigued.

“It’s exhausting,” he said, pausing and widening his eyes for emphasis, “I’m exhausted.”

There’s a thin line between good and not good enough on the tour, as UNC alum and Sunday contender Ben Griffin said. Exhaustion, of course, plays a factor. But Griffin, a distant (about eight miles of distance, to be exact) friend of Greyserman from college, quipped that all Greyserman needed was belief.

“Now he’s competing week in and week out in contention it seems like this summer,” Griffin said. “He’s got a ton of game and it looks like maybe he’ll get it done today.”

At the time, Griffin was right. Because as Greyserman eagled from the fairway to go up four on No. 13, it appeared the only thing chasing the PGA Tour rookie down was the impending sunset.

In reality, the biggest threat was himself.

To call the impending sequence a roller coaster is an understatement. Greyserman followed a two with an eight on the scorecard — a result of a quadruple bogey on No. 14. Just as quickly as the Duke alum appeared to have clinched his first PGA Tour win, he dropped back to 17 under to share the lead with eventual Wyndham champion Rai. Then, he followed it with a four-putt on 16.

“That’s golf,” Greyserman said. “It’s honestly not the first time that I’ve hit the cart path on the right and it went OB. In Savannah on the Korn Ferry Tour, I was in contention down the stretch and the same thing happened. I’ve got to ask the people not to put cart paths on the right side.”

Greyserman, of course, was joking. But Kuchar, outside of the utter tomfoolery he displayed, had a serious request of the Wyndham. Speaking to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, he argued that the tournament should have been paused earlier because of the darkness.

“We were so far past when we should’ve stopped playing. We saw what Max did on hole 16; they should’ve blown the hole there. I feel bad, the poor kid should’ve won this tournament. By me not playing, it may show Max he has an important shot to hit.”

Kuchar even approached Greyserman as the 29-year-old stood on the No. 18 fairway. Kuchar announced he would finish the next day.

“If I finish, do I have to come back with you tomorrow?” Greyserman asked.

“No,” Kuchar said. “If you finish, you finish.”

And so he did — shooting even par on the final hole and one under for Round Four. Soon after, in nearly pitch-black darkness, Greyserman spoke to the media about all the things he would take away from the tournament.

“I had a four-shot lead with five holes to go?” he said, almost inquisitively, as if to verify his score. “If you’re doing that in a PGA Tour event, you’re doing something exceptionally well, so that’s what I’m going to walk away with.”

Rai walked away with a trophy after Greyserman’s back-nine collapse. Kuchar walked away with an extra night of Wyndham Rewards points. The rules official who will be present Monday morning for Kuchar walked away, presumably, steamed. Clanton and so many others players put through the 36-hole meat grinder Sunday walked, or more accurately lumbered, away in exhaustion.

The classic course and rainy weekend demanded everything from everyone — the golfers, organizers and grounds crew — and returned a dramatic saga that will go down in Wyndham history.

“Stuff” happened. Golf, in its own mind-boggling and almost laughable way, happened.

Correction: Is happening. After all, Kuchar still has half a hole to play. Hopefully he pays his caddie well.

This story was originally published August 11, 2024 at 12:00 AM.