Kuchar sees top 10 finishes as right path to Masters win

Matt Kuchar’s name has become a fixture on Augusta National Golf Club leaderboards, just as Phil Mickelson’s was before he won his first green jacket.

Kuchar, who has finished in the top 10 in the past three Masters Tournaments, hopes his high finishes will eventually help him earn a spot in the Champions Locker Room with Mickelson.

Kuchar finished tied for third in 2012, tied for eighth in 2013 and tied for fifth last year.

Mickelson had seven top-10 finishes before he won his first Masters in 2004, including three consecutive third-place finishes leading into the victory.

“I certainly feel that sort of track record lends it to a guy having a better chance of winning,” Kuchar said. “Phil Mickelson knocked on the door a bunch, Tiger Woods, if he wasn’t winning, he was right there. It seems that guys that have great track records certainly have a better chance than a guy who finishes 30th a bunch.”

Kuchar and Lee Westwood are the only players to finish in the top 10 each of the past three years.

“Anybody in the field has a legitimate chance at winning,” Kuchar said. “But I’d put my money on the guys that year after year seem to play some pretty good golf there.”

It was looking like 2014 might be Kuchar’s year at Augusta National. He opened with 73-71-68 and was one shot out of the lead going into the final round. He opened that round with a par on No. 1 and birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 to briefly share the lead with Jordan Spieth.

Then came a four-putt double bogey on the par-3 fourth.

“I got excited and it was fun,” he said of the opening three holes. “When I doubled four, things turned quickly. That’s what can happen there. No. 4 is a hard hole. Par is a great score, bogey’s not a bad score. I ended up turning a par into a double.

“I was still OK with it,” Kuchar said. “I knew in golf you have ups and downs. Those things happen. I can’t recall the last time I four-putted. But if there was ever a place to do it (that’s it).”

He played his next 12 holes in even par, but bogeyed the final two to finish with 74, six shots behind winner Bubba Watson.

“It’s tough,” Kuchar said after the round. “I don’t know how many opportunities you get at winning the Masters Tournament. And I’ve had two this far (2012 and 2014). I don’t know how many more I’ll get. It’s one of those things you get in the situation and you hope to take advantage, but it’s a lot better in this position than playing early on Sunday, that’s for sure.”

Kuchar’s love affair with the Masters hasn’t dimmed over the years. He has played in eight Masters, the first two as an amateur, in 1998 and 1999.

“I tell people one of the coolest things that’s happened to me, and it’s happened a number of times, is I was staying in the Crow’s Nest (where amateurs can bunk upstairs in the clubhouse) having an afternoon tee time and coming downstairs and seeing guys tee off and think, ‘Oh my Gosh, I’m a fan here, I can’t believe I’m here at Augusta watching people and believe it or not, I get to play in the afternoon.

“It still happens to me,” he said. “I wake up and the telecast is on and I sit down and watch the coverage and I think ‘this is so exciting. It’s Masters Week, things are happening.’ Then I think to myself that I’m actually going out in the afternoon and going to be inside the ropes and doing it.”

Once Kuchar gets on the first tee, he knows he’ll face what he calls the “hardest easy course in the world or the easiest hard course.”

Asked to explain, Kuchar said “it’s a course where if you are on good form, you can make a lot of birdies. But if you’re not, you’re going to make a lot of bogeys and worse. It’s one of those courses that demands you to be sharp and darn near perfect and if you are there is a lot of birdie potential. But if you’re not striking it well, if you’re not in great control of what you’re doing, you can see a guy shoot a high 70s or 80 pretty easily.”