Mayakoba Golf Classic: Kuchar Gets Career Boost With Win

On the surface, the stat/factoid circling throughout Golf Twitter on Sunday was eye-popping: Matt Kuchar and Lee Westwood both won on Sunday to win for the first time in four years. Since April 20, 2014, to be precise. Both of them on the exact same day then and now.

We don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, because the latest wins are huge for each of them, but there are some caveats. When we're done explaining them, Westwood's win will look even larger. First, Kuchar.

The fans' beloved Kooooch had a miserable 2017-18 season, the kind that makes you think that, uh-oh, he's over 40, and the end is near. Kuchar didn't reach the Tour Championship – in fact, he didn't finish in the top-70; he didn't make the Ryder Cup team for the first time in a decade; and he had fallen to 40th in the world, territory he hadn't inhabited since 2010.

But Kuchar won the Mayakoba Golf Classic on Sunday, withstanding some very shaky and anxious moments to fend off Danny Lee by one stroke. Kuchar was on cruise control until ugly bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15, and he still needed to drain a knee-knocking three-footer for par on 18 to avoid a playoff.

Kuchar thus won on the PGA Tour for the first time since that day in April four years ago, when he won the RBC Heritage for his seventh Tour title. In between, he had won the 2015 Fiji International, but that tournament's field was so weak that many non-winning finishes have netted Kuchar more OWGR points than that win did.

So even though the Mayakoba is a fall season event with far from a strong field itself, it's still a huge boost to Kuchar's career. It moves him back to No. 29 in the world, it gets him into Kapalua in January and it ensures a return to the Masters, which was likely anyway but not certain.

To be sure, Kuchar is now 40 and his best days surely are behind him. But he's a fan favorite, and it'll be good to have him around on Tour as long as possible. We just can't count on his seemingly continuous string of top-10s – backdoor or otherwise – anymore.

Lee Westwood

Westwood was teary-eyed upon completing an 8-under 64 to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa. Even though the field was weak – far weaker than Mayakoba – it was a big event on the European Tour, the penultimate event in the Race to Dubai.

The win moves Westwood to this week's season-ending DP World Tour Championship with a select 64-man field. The 45-year-old Englishman didn't quite move back into the top-50 in the world, but he's up to No. 64.

Like Kuchar, Westwood had won more recently than four years ago. In fact, he had won twice, though both were Asian Tour events. But even the win Twitter was referencing, the April 2014 Maybank Malaysian Open, was a co-sanction between the European and Asian Tours. It was a woefully weak field.

You have to go back six years to find the last "full" Euro event that the former No. 1-ranked Westwood had won, and that was the 2012 Nordea Masters. At the time, he was No. 3 in the world.

Indicative of nothing, Ross Fisher finished second that week, and Sergio Garcia tied for third. At the Nedbank, Garcia was second, and Fisher wound up fourth. In between, local favorite Louis Oosthuizen finished third.

"Still got it, I guess," a beaming Westwood told reporters in South Africa. "It's just nice to do it again under pressure and win against a couple of quality ­players at the end there. I can't wait to watch the highlights to be honest, because I hit so many good shots coming in."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sergio Garcia
Garcia had led the Nedbank since Thursday until being overtaken by Westwood. The Spaniard did not play badly – he shot 2-under on Sunday. He just fell victim to a red-hot Westwood. Garcia has played much better during the fall after a woeful season on the PGA Tour, and that shows he's still quite relevant in fantasy golf, and real golf.

Moliwood
Those two lovebirds, Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari, will be enemies of sorts, at least for one week. The Englishman and the Italian are now the only two golfers who can win the season-long Race to Dubai, which concludes this week at the DP World Tour Championship in, of all places, Dubai. Molinari is firmly ahead to supplant the defending champion Fleetwood, but his lead is not insurmountable. Fleetwood would need to win and have Molinari finish worse than a tie for fifth. The results in Sun City eliminated Haotong Li (T5), Rory McIlroy (T21) and Lucas Bjerregaard ( T11) from winning the Harry Vardon Trophy. But the Dane will be very pleased to move inside the top-50 in the OWGR (No. 47), which could open up his schedule to bigger events next year, including the Masters.

Danny Lee
Lee finished runner-up to Kuchar for his best showing since tying for second at the 2015 Tour Championship. He was bidding for his first win since his maiden title at the Greenbrier earlier that season. This was only Lee's fourth top-10 of 2018 – one of the other's came at the Players Championship. While the win moves Lee back inside the top-100 at No. 89, we don't view this as a signal to "buy" Lee. More likely, it's the case we see with so many other golfers: They use maybe a handful of good showings per year to formulate the bulk of their resume, and their points.

J.J. Spaun
Spaun has a nice run going and likely is not looking forward to the Tour's long break after next week. He followed up a T10 and a T15 in his two prior events with a tie for third in Mexico. We always felt Spaun had more upside than he's shown. But in reality, he's probably more like Lee – someone who uses five to six tournaments a year to win the majority of his cash. Both are 28 years old. For what it's worth, Spaun was the runner-up last year at the RSM Classic, which will close the fall season this week.

Jim Furyk
It's easy to forget that there is life after Ryder Cup captaincy. But what is Furyk supposed to do now but play golf? Further, he's only 48, so his golf has to be on the PGA Tour for now. Well, the No. 255-ranked Furyk tied for sixth at Mayakoba in his second start post-Cup. In his last event before Paris, Furyk tied for fourth at the Wyndham, so there is obviously a lot of game left in him. Maybe not contending for majors or winning anywhere, but in the right event, Furyk can be a key part of your lineup.

Cameron Champ
There's a week to go, but it's safe to say that this guy is the star of the fall season. Champ tied for 10th in Mexico, another indicator that he's not exhaling following his first PGA Tour win at the Sanderson last month. Champ's steady rise up the rankings has carried him to No. 107, and he'll be the star attraction this week at the woefully weak RSM.

Aaron Wise
Wise isn't much older than Champ. He doesn't have quite the star power, but he does have game. He also tied for 10th, which will leave him at No. 52 in the world. Wise has now finished in the top-16 in six of his past eight starts going back to the WGC-Bridgestone, and he appears to have flipped a switch after a poor summer. Wise is not in the RSM field, so we probably won't see him again till Kapalua. We'll also see him in the Masters for the first time next year, something Champ has yet to secure.

Emiliano Grillo
Grillo finished solo 15th. But if not for an ugly three-jack on 18 that led to a double bogey, he could've joined Champ, Wise and others in the top-10. Grillo finishes his fall season at No. 48 in the world and seems quite capable of rising significantly higher in 2019.

Tony Finau
Finau finished his fall season in a tie for 16th in Mexico. While Kuchar just qualified for Kapalua, Finau will not be there, having gone another year without a win. He's not in the field for this week's RSM Classic.

Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth ended his horrid 2018 in fitting fashion – with a trunk-slam. He will now fall behind Finau in the rankings at No. 15 and probably lower by year's end. Spieth is planning to get married soon. Maybe that will help his game, because nothing worked for the former No. 1 in 2018.