PGA Championship Power Rankings: Top ten at Quail Hollow

Matt Kuchar is one of the few guys on the PGA TOUR who I would trust to come back from a crushing defeat like the one he suffered at the Open, then win his first major the next time out. Jordan Spieth even said it in his victory speech at Royal Birkdale, he believes that Kuchar will win a major, and soon. But could it be this soon?

One of the biggest fan-favorites in golf, Kuchar has worked for years under that dreaded title: “best player without a major”. Phil Mickelson used to carry that one around, then it went to Sergio Garcia. Both of those guys came close a number of times before they broke through. Perhaps in the future, we’ll look back at the 2017 Open as the turning point for the veteran Kuchar.

While Quail Hollow has been a mainstay on the TOUR schedule since 2003, Kuchar hasn’t played there since 2010. That makes some sense – he missed the cut that year, one of just two all season for “Mr. Consistency”.

Of course, seven years makes a ton of difference, and 2010 was really the first year that Kuchar became the guy we all know today, as it relates to contending in big events. He has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to courses that look like they’d be “too long” for his moderate driving distance, and he’s about as pure of a ball-striker with an iron or wedge as you’ll find.

One of these days, Matt Kuchar is going to break through and win the big one. Don’t sleep on his chances this week.