THE FLATS – Matt Kuchar comes within a shot of possible victory … Anders Albertson makes significant leap on Korn Ferry Tour … Final word on Stewart Cink’s hole-in-one at the Masters … Cink weighs in on Woods’ calling him “Kitchen,” what changes he has made to give him more distance … More details below in this week’s Georgia Tech #ProJackets Report.
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KUCHAR COMES WITHIN A STROKE OF POSSIBLE VICTORY
Continuing his recent resurgence on the PGA Tour, Matt Kuchar stayed near the lead throughout the weekend and came up one stroke shy of a playoff to determine the champion at last weekend’s RBC Heritage. Bidding to win the event for the second time and first since 2014, Kuchar shot rounds of 68-69-67-68 for a 12-under-par total of 272, one stroke shy of joining a playoff between Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay. He owns the longest active streak of rounds in the 60s at the RBC Heritage with 16.
It was Kuchar’s third top-10 finish this year, and his second in a row after his tie for second at the Valero Texas Open two weeks ago (he did not play the Masters). Kuchar has jumped from No. 116 to No. 36 in the FedEx Cup standings after tying for 16th at the Valspar Championship, and his last two top-3 finishes.
In 501 PGA Tour starts, Kuchar has finished in the top 10 111 times, has won nine times, finished second 14 times and third 14 times.
Meanwhile, Cameron Tringale continued to play very good golf with a tie for 12th place at 9-under-par 275, and remains the highest-ranked Yellow Jacket on the FedEx Cup points list at No. 28. His rounds in the 60s were his first at Harbour Town in four appearances in the event. Defending champion Stewart Cink opened with an excellent 67 and made the cut, but faded Sunday with a 74 and finished 68th at 287 (+3). Chesson Hadley and Richy Werenski missed the cut.
The Tour moves this week to the New Orleans area for its two-man team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Tringale is in the field, paired with Wyndham Clark, while Hadley is paired with former Clemson golfer Jonathan Byrd, Werenski with Peter Uihlein, Vincent Whaley with Lee Hodges and Seth Reeves with Jared Wolff, .
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FINAL WORD ON CINK’S HOLE-IN-ONE AT THE MASTERS
From GolfChannel.com: Though Cink missed the cut shortly after his heroics, he didn’t leave Augusta empty-handed. In Round 2, Cink stepped onto the par-3 16th’s tee box, took out his 8-iron and then holed the 24th ace on No. 16 in Masters history.
“This golf course and the tournament, it’s just a wonderful environment anyway,” he said. “So to have something like that happen was really something I’ll always remember for sure.”
But there’s another component to the moment that made it even more memorable. It made for the perfect gift as Cink had his son, Reagan, whose 25th birthday was Friday, on the bag.
“That’s the extent of my birthday present. I gave him the ball,” Stewart Cink said. “That should be enough, right?”
Stewart Cink with an ace at 16!! #theMasters
pic.twitter.com/hrnCJwqx6k— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) April 8, 2022
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CINK DISPELS NICKNAME RUMOR
After Tiger Woods’ final round at the Masters, he revealed an amusing nickname for Stewart Cink when referring to Cink’s ace Friday at Augusta National.
“(2019) was the last time for me that I experienced having the patrons (at the Masters) like this, and it’s exciting,” Woods said. “It’s inspiring. It’s fun to hear the roars, to hear the hole-in-ones. I think Kitchen made one the other day. To hear that roar down there at the bottom on [hole] 16, just to hear that excitement of what this tournament brings out.”
But it turns out that Woods was not the one who came up with “Kitchen” for Cink, even though the 15-time major champion may think he did.
“Well, it’s been something that people called me ever since I was little. Ever since I can remember,” Cink said Tuesday at Harbour Town, where he’s set to make his RBC Heritage title defense.
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ALBERTSON MAKING A MOVE UP KORN FERRY POINT LIST
Anders Albertson put together an excellent weekend at the Veritex Bank Championship, closing with a 9-under-par 62 that included a string of five straight birdies from holes 13-17. The closing stretch allowed him to post a 17-under-par total of 267, a tie for 12th place, and a jump from 56th to 41st in Korn Ferry Tour points. It was his second-best finish of the year behind a tie for fourth at the Lake Charles Championship.
Watch videos of two of Albertson’s five straight birdies below.
Paul Haley II missed the cut and fell to 18th in the points standings, but still among the top 25 needed to secure a PGA Tour card at the end of the regular season.
The tour takes this week off and resumes April 28 with the Huntsville Open in Alabama.
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CINK’S GEAR CHANGES THAT HELPED HIM HIT IT FARTHER
Stewart Cink, the 48-year-old who this week is defending his title at the RBC Heritage, is ranked 50th in driving distance this season, averaging 304.1 yards per tee shot. That’s a significant increase from just two years ago, when he ranked 113th and averaged 295.7 yards off the tee.
So how did Cink increase his driving distance even as he nears PGA TOUR Champions eligibility?
“I set out to achieve (increased distance) two years ago,” Cink told GolfWRX this week. “That’s something we’ve been focusing on, gaining a little distance. I felt like I was leaving something in the tank. I just wasn’t properly using everything I had at my disposal. Me and my coaches went out and tried to solve that, and two years later, (it worked).”
According to Cink, his secret to the distance increase was two-fold. First, he improved his technique as it relates to distance. Then, he optimized his equipment to better suit his improved mechanics.
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DUVAL AMONG 5 WITH SUB-60 ROUNDS AT TPC SUGARLOAF THIS WEEKEND
Five PGA Tour Champions greats who have touched professional golf’s most rarefied air — a round below 60 — will tee off when the Mitsubishi Electric Classic returns to TPC Sugarloaf May 2-8.
Jim Furyk, Paul Goydos, Stuart Appleby, Kevin Sutherland and the previously announced David Duval boast 13 PGA Tour Champions victories and 42 PGA Tour wins between them.
Duval, who became only the third golfer in PGA Tour history to score a 59 during the 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, capping off his historic day with an eagle on the 18th hole. In the process, he also became the first golfer ever to score a 59 during a tournament’s final round. The former world No. 1 made his PGA Tour Champions debut at the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at Hualalai in January, extending an impressive career that includes capturing the 2001 Open Championship and 1999 Players Championship.
