Matt Kuchar has apologised to everyone affected by his decision not to complete the final hole of the Wyndham Championship on Sunday evening.
Kuchar was the only player in the field to return to Sedgefield Country Club on Monday after exercising his right not to finish the 72nd hole of the weather-affected tournament.
Needing a win to continue his run as the only player to reach the FedEx Cup play-offs every year since their inception in 2007, Kuchar was out of contention in a 10-way tie for 12th when he hooked his tee shot on the 18th into the trees.
Play was suspended when the other two players in the final group, Max Greyserman and Chad Ramey, had also teed off, giving all three the option to complete the hole as daylight quickly faded.
But while Ramey and Greyserman – who had surrendered a four-shot lead after 13 holes but could still catch England’s Aaron Rai with an eagle – opted to finish, Kuchar informed tournament officials he would mark his ball and return on Monday.
The 46-year-old American duly did so and resumed play at 8am local time, receiving line-of-sight relief from a scoreboard before hitting his second shot short of the green, then hitting the pin with his pitch and tapping in for par.
The par ensured Kuchar earned around £105,000 in prize money, while an unlikely birdie would have been worth an additional £70,000. A bogey would have reduced his payday to £60,000.
Speaking to a small group of reporters after finishing on Monday, Kuchar said: “Sorry that you guys had to come out this morning.
“Nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn’t finish. I can’t tell you how many times I have been finished with a round (and) bummed out that we didn’t get to make the cut because somebody didn’t finish.
“I think had I been in the fairway with a normal shot, I probably would have attempted to finish, but I had just seen Max four-putt the 16th hole. If there was daylight on that green, does he four-putt? I don’t know, I don’t know.
“I did not realise Aaron Rai made birdie on the last. I’m figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament. So I said, well, Max will stop, I’ll stop, kind of make it easy on him.
“Again, it stinks to… nobody wants to be that guy that’s showing up today, one person, one hole. So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out.
“I know the ramifications, I know it stinks. Certainly I apologise to force everybody to come out here.”
Asked if he was aware of the unfavourable reaction to his decision, Kuchar said: “Thankfully I avoid that stuff. I did get a call from my agent, said ‘hey, you’re causing quite a stir’, so that was the little I heard.
“I’m grateful to not be a part of the social media thing.”