May 8, 2012
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s Matt Kuchar, a 2000 graduate of the Institute and a three-time PGA Tour event winner, recently designated a check in the amount of $50,000 to Georgia Tech Athletic Association. This contribution is a portion of the charitable proceeds generated from The Presidents Cup 2011 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in which Kuchar participated as a member of the victorious U.S. Team for the first time in his career.
Kuchar and his wife Sybi, a 1999 Georgia Tech graduate and a former member of the Yellow Jackets’ tennis team, have long been benefactors of Tech’s golf and tennis programs, and this gift is a continuation of that support.
The Presidents Cup is a unique golf event in that there is no purse or prize money. Players are not personally paid for their participation; instead, each competitor, captain and captain’s assistant allocates their portion of the proceeds generated to chosen charitable causes.
Kuchar, who won the 1997 United States Amateur Championship, earned All-America honors three times and All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors four times while a member of the Yellow Jackets’ team. He won the Fred Haskins Player of the Year Award in 1998 and the Dave Williams National Player of the Year Award in 2000, and was named ACC Player of the Year in 1998. He played on the U.S. Walker Cup team in 1999, and the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2010.
A total of $4.5 nlillion will be distributed to charitable causes around the world from The Presidents Cup 201 1, a record-setting amount for this prestigious competition and part of the more than $27 million raised since the inception of event in 1994.
The Presidents Cup is a biennial match-play competition between the United States Team and the International Team, which was first contested in 1994. The International Team includes the world’s best players from non-European countries. The ninth playing of the event occurred November 15-20, 2011, at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which was the first international venue to host this prestigious competition more than once.
The U.S. Team captured The Presidents Cup for the seventh time, led by Captain Fred Couples and a 5-0-0 performance by veteran Jim Furyk. Tiger Woods, one of Couples’ two captain’s picks, clinched the Cup for the United States with a 4-and-3 win over Australia’s Aaron Baddeley in Sunday Singles. For Woods, it was the second consecutive time he had scored the winning point at The Presidents Cup, becoming only the second player to accomplish that feat (Couples, 1994, 1996) and the first captain’s pick to do so. Greg Norman’s International Team played well, but was undone by the Foursomes competition. The Internationals were outscored 8-3 in foursomes and eventually lost the Cup by four points (19-15).
The U.S. holds a 7-1-1 record in The Presidents Cup overall. The International Team last won The Presidents Cup in 1998 when it was held outside the United States for the first time, also at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. A historic 17-17 tie came in 2003 when the event was held in South Africa. For more information on The Presidents Cup, visit www.PresidentsCup.com.
