Pressure builds on Kuchar after new tale of unexpected

In golf, it comes as no surprise at all to see American Matt Kuchar win the Accenture Match Play Championship, certainly not at the end of a week which had world No 1 Rory McIlroy lose to 64th seed Shane Lowry, Tiger Woods go down to 63rd seed Charles Howell and none of the top seven seeds even make it through to the last 16.

Kuchar’s victory makes it eight different winners in the first eight events of the PGA Tour year, while on the European Tour – the Match Play counts for both – nine tournaments this season have produced nine different outcomes.

“Every week is a great opportunity,” said the sport’s newest world champion after beating holder Hunter Mahan 2&1 in the final in Arizona.

Kuchar is developing a superb match play record – in this event if not at the Ryder Cup, where in his two singles games he has been beaten 5&4 by Ian Poulter at Celtic Manor and then 3&2 by Lee Westwood in Chicago.

Had he won either of those, Europe would not have been celebrating, but he has been a semi-finalist, quarter-finalist and now the champion at Dove Mountain in the last three years.

“I’m not sure I can explain how excited I am to have won this tournament,” said the 34-year-old. “Matchplay I find to be such an amazing, unique format, so much fun to play and so much pressure.

“It seems like each hole there’s so much momentum riding and so much pressure on every hole.

“To come out on top after six matches with the top 64 guys in the world is quite an incredible feeling.”

Kuchar won £965,000 to take his career earnings through the £14m mark. The former US Amateur winner lifted the prestigious Players Championship last June and after this win, expectations on him at the majors are bound to grow.

He has had a top 10 finish in each of them the last three seasons and with his best being his third place at last April’s US Masters it is no wonder that he is looking forward to returning to Augusta in just six weeks.

With McIlroy yet to make it to the weekend in two starts so far this year – he defends the Honda Classic in Florida this week – and Woods missing the cut as well in Abu Dhabi before winning in San Diego and then crashing out in Tucson, then expect the unexpected.

Latest leading world rankings: 1 R McIlroy 11.66pts, 2 T Woods 8.83, 3 L Donald 7.25, 4 B Snedeker 6.74, 5 L Oosthuizen 6.35, 6 J Rose 6.32, 7 A Scott 5.58, 8 M Kuchar 5.45, 9 L Westwood 5.37, 10 I Poulter 5.23, 11 B Watson 5.18, 12 P Mickelson 5.15, 13 S Stricker 5.02, 14 C Schwartzel 4.97, 15 J Dufner 4.93, 16 W Simpson 4.81, 17 S Garcia 4.77, 18 K Bradley 4.75, 19 G McDowell 4.58, 20 D Johnson 4.56. Other leading Europeans: 22 P Hanson, 28 M Kaymer, 31 J Donaldson, 32 G Fernandez-Castano, 33 P Lawrie. Also: 83 S Dyson.