The PGA Tour Top 10 Most Dominant Performances of 2019
By Bill Felber
9. Matt Kuchar, Sony Open
Is there anything in the world better than playing four great rounds of golf in Hawaii?
Matt Kuchar experienced that feeling in January when he shot 63-63-66-66 to pull away from the field at last seasons PGA Tour Event, the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. His total of 258 bested runner-up Andrew Putnam by four strokes and beat the four-round field average of 271.06 by 13.0 strokes, or 2.92 standard deviations.
For three days, Kuchar killed the field with his consistency. He trailed Putnam by one stroke after the first round but led by one at the halfway point, and by two through three rounds. Over those first 54 holes, he made just one bogey.
At the start of the final round, that profile changed abruptly. Kuchar bogeyed the second, fourth and fifth holes, and found himself in a tie with Putnam. Kuchar began turning it around with a birdie at the ninth, then streaked through the closing nine holes in 30 strokes.
Across the final two rounds, Kuchar hit 88.89 percent of his greens in regulation, a level of consistency that will wear down any field any week. For the entire tournament, he hit 83.3 percent, his best showing of the year with his irons.