Matt Kuchar Wins Six Hole Playoff

The tenth playoff of 2009 was a battle of who could choke less. Matt Kuchar, needing a birdie on the 72nd hole to beat Vaughn Taylor, chunked his third shot into the front bunker of the par-5, forcing himself to get up and down to save par and force the extra holes.

In the playoff, Taylor decided to hit a long iron off the tee of the long par-5 18th, yanking his second shot into the rough, but recovered wonderfully with a third shot that hit just past the pin, nearly went in for an eagle and settled a foot and half away for a tap-in birdie.

The chocking continued on the second playoff hole, the par-5 12th hole, when both guys snap-hooked their second shots miles left of the fairway, settling for matching pars before the playoff was pushed to Monday because of darkness.

There, the two players continued to trade blows, needing four more holes to final settle the playoff, when Kuchar's par on the sixth playoff hole was good enough for victory.

The win was Kuchar's second of his career and first since 2002, when he claimed the Honda Classic. It seems strange to think that the man that burst on the golf scene in 1998 as a young, grinning amateur, finishing t-21 at the Masters and t-14 at the U.S. Open, would only claim two victories in over ten years on the PGA Tour, but his win this week put him over $2 million in earnings in '09, not a bad season for the 31-year-old Kuchar.

A good week for some guys that didn't make the Sunday playoff. Leif Olson, the man made famous for his bank-shot hole-in-one at the Canadian Open, had never finished in the top 36 on the PGA Tour, but ended t-3 after four rounds in the 60s. Webb Simpson, the rookie who got off to such a hot start when the year began, carded his best finish at seventh since January.

The Turning Stone was the first time the PGA Tour had gone to lift, clean and place through the greens since 2005, meaning as long as you weren't in a hazard, you could improve your lie anywhere on the golf course.