Matt Kuchar and Sergio Garcia aren’t taking any chances with their latest controversy.
The pair have been at the center of two of 2019’s biggest golf controversies — Kuchar as it pertains to his temporary caddie payment at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and Garcia’s disqualification in Saudi Arabia for damaging the course — and they took a preventative step on Monday to make sure their latest dust-up over a bizarre ruling doesn’t blow up in their faces.
During their Saturday quarterfinal match in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Garcia missed a 4-inch putt on the 7th green under the assumption that the putt was conceded. When Kuchar informed him as well as a rules official that the putt hadn’t been conceded, Garcia lost the hole and started a firestorm that is still a hot topic in golf circles.
Whether by design or divine intervention, both Kuchar and Garcia were on hand at Austin Golf Club on Monday. The American and the Spainard hopped in a golf cart and spoke into a smartphone to show that they buried the hatchet.
.@TheSergioGarcia and Matt Kuchar talked through Saturday’s Match Play drama. ? pic.twitter.com/Lb8ivncT78
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) April 1, 2019
“What’s gone on with the aftermath is just incorrect, wrong and shouldn’t happen,” Kuchar said. “I want to tell you, Sergio handled the thing extremely well. When he missed the putt, we came off 7 and he said, ‘You know what, I missed it. It’s your hole.’ I told him how bad I felt, didn’t feel right at all. (I) never want to win on a technicality.”
“I know I made a mistake on 7 and, you know, didn’t give him time to say ‘that’s good,’ even though, obviously, we all know in our minds that it was good because it was a short putt,” Garcia said. “But at the end of the day, I made a mistake and he unfortunately didn’t know how to make up for what happened. But it’s all good. We’re all good.”
Kuchar is in the field this week at the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio while Garcia is taking the week off an will play next week in the first major championship of the season.
