Matt Kuchar wasted everyone’s time with ruling at Memorial Tournament

Matt Kuchar found himself at the center of an odd rules situation, and he ended up wasting everyone’s time trying to get a break.

Matt Kuchar is making headlines again for the wrong reasons at the Memorial Tournament.

We really should be spending a LOT more time in 2019 talking about how well he’s been playing. The guy has two wins, a pair of runner-up finishes and a combined seven top-tens in 14 total starts. He’s won nearly $6 million before June, and he has a fairly commanding lead int he FedEx Cup.

So why, why, why are we talking about him in a negative light yet again? Thankfully, it wasn’t tipping or not conceding a putt. This time, Kuchar wound up wasting everyone’s time trying to get a ruling to go in his favor that clearly shouldn’t have ever been an issue.

The short version (because it gets a lot longer here in a minute) starts on the 17th hole. His drive found the fairway, took a short hop, and found its final resting spot – in a pitch mark previously left by another shot. This is where things get sticky, and annoyingly so.

Players are allowed relief from pitch marks that their own shots create, but not pre-existing divots. Somehow, despite agreeing with rules officials and spotters that the mark was not his, he tried to convince not one, but two separate officials that his ball had somehow created a “secondary” pitch.

I’d post the video here (which was posted by the official @PGATOUR twitter account yesterday), but it’s since been scrubbed from all official social channels. There’s some footage still out there, but it’s nearly ten minutes of Kuch trying to barter with officials who struggle to see how a ball inches off the ground would create enough impact for a new hole in the turf.

For clarity’s sake, I don’t blame Kuchar for trying to get a favorable ruling – that happens all the time on Tour. But this extended farce drew in two separate officials, an NBC cameraman, and (I’m fairly certain) the ghost of Old Tom Morris. After being denied, in detail, by the first official, he was shut down significantly faster by the second.

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Then Kuchar, with a smile on his face that indicated he may have been joking, but was totally serious if it was going to work, asked for a third. Bryson DeChambeau was given a bad time in this same group, and if I were the rules official, I would have told Kuchar that he was on the clock at that point.

Kuchar defended his decision speaking with Dylan Dethier of Golf.com, and it sounds reasonable enough, other than the sheer amount of time it cost everyone.

"“The only reason I did it is just from seeing the video and not being totally clear on the rules, and they’re tricky enough. We’re lucky to have a great staff out here and I certainly trust their opinion. I only asked for a second one because I thought there was potential and thought, you never know, you may get someone else who says there is potential, we could look further into that.”"

On the plus side, Kuchar did make par on the hole. So, you know, there’s that.

Overall, it’s not the worst situation that’s ever happened by any means, but it was just an absurd exercise in trying to get a break, all caught on camera (again, before the TOUR removed it). To delay play by almost ten minutes for such a simple ruling, though, is absurd, especially considering the slow play epidemic on Tour these days.

Kuchar shot a one-over round of 73 on Thursday to tie for 66th place. He’ll look to make a move up the leaderboard in Friday’s second round. Hopefully, this one goes a little faster.