Matt Kuchar

Matthew Gregory Kuchar (born June 21, 1978) is an American professional golfer currently on the PGA Tour, with past stints on the Nationwide Tour. He has nine PGA Tour victories to his name. After a promising start in the early 2000s, Kuchar hit a rough patch and nearly lost his Tour status. He turned things around by adopting a new, one-plane swing in 2008, which led to much better results. In 2010, he topped the PGA Tour’s money list.

Kuchar’s biggest win came in 2012 at The Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event. That victory pushed him to a career-best world ranking of No. 5, and he has spent more than 40 weeks in the top 10. In February 2013, he claimed his first World Golf Championship title by beating Hunter Mahan in the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Kuchar won the bronze medal—the first Olympic golf medal awarded since 1904. By the end of the 2025 season, he had become the highest-earning PGA Tour player without a major championship win, with career earnings exceeding $61.5 million. His closest brush with a major was a runner-up finish at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Kuchar was born in Winter Park, Florida, to Peter, a life insurance salesman and former college tennis pro, and Meg Kuchar. He has one sibling, Rebecca. He graduated from Seminole High School in Sanford in 1996.

He attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he was a two-time first-team All-American on the Yellow Jackets golf team. In 1996, he narrowly lost to Tiger Woods in the U.S. Amateur semifinals, but won the title the following year. He received the Haskins Award in 1998 as the top collegiate golfer. One of his Georgia Tech teammates was future PGA Tour pro Bryce Molder. Kuchar earned a bachelor’s degree in management. He also had success in majors in 1998, finishing as low amateur at both The Masters and the U.S. Open.

Kuchar turned pro in November 2000 after a brief stint at a financial services firm. He missed the deadline for the 2000 qualifying school. In 2001, he used sponsor exemptions to play in PGA Tour events and earned enough to secure full status for 2002. His first PGA Tour win came at the 2002 Honda Classic. A tough 2005 saw him earn less than $403,000, finishing 159th on the money list and losing his Tour card. He failed to regain it at qualifying school and played on the Nationwide Tour in 2006, winning the Henrico County Open and finishing 10th on the money list to earn back his PGA Tour card for 2007. He kept his card the next two years by finishing 115th in 2007 and 70th in 2008.

Seven years after his first win, Kuchar won again at the Turning Stone Resort Championship during the Fall Series. He beat Vaughn Taylor in a Monday playoff after darkness halted play Sunday evening.

Kuchar made the Ryder Cup team in 2010, grabbing the eighth and final spot on the U.S. squad on August 15. At the time, he led the Tour in top-10 finishes but hadn’t won that year. That changed two weeks later at The Barclays, where he defeated Martin Laird on the first playoff hole. He also won the Vardon Trophy, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest scoring average, and the Arnold Palmer Award for leading the money list.

Kuchar started 2011 with three straight top-10 finishes: T6 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, T5 at the Sony Open, and T7 at the Bob Hope Classic. In February, he reached the semifinals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, losing 6&5 to eventual champion Luke Donald, then beat Bubba Watson 2&1 for third place. He tied for second at the Memorial Tournament in June, his eighth top-10 of the season, moving him to a then-career-high world No. 6. He finished second at The Barclays (shortened to 54 holes by Hurricane Irene), moving him to second in the FedEx Cup standings. He and Gary Woodland won the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in November.

Kuchar tied for third at The Masters, his best major finish to that point. He shared the lead on the back nine Sunday but bogeyed the par-3 16th and ended two strokes out of the playoff. In May, he won The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, shooting a final-round 70 to win by two strokes. He entered the final round one behind Kevin Na, bogeyed the first hole, then played nearly flawless golf except for a three-putt bogey on 17. The win lifted him to a career-high world No. 5.

In February, Kuchar won the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.