Matt Kuchar still seeks first win of 2011

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EDISON, N.J. -- In late March, Matt Kuchar was in New York to help launch an amateur golf event. Towering over everyone in a room full of mostly business types, the 6-foot-4 Kuchar showed off his toothy grin and southern charm while sampling vodka lemonades and talking about life on the PGA Tour.

Earlier that afternoon he had killed time by walking around midtown Manhattan. He was surprised by the affordability of his deli sandwich. New York prices didn't scare him after all. He was headed to the Shell Houston Open and then to Augusta, where he had played a practice round earlier in the week.

I wanted to know how he felt when other players said that they wanted a "Matt Kuchar-type of year." What did it mean to him to pile up 11 top-10s in 2010, the money title ($4.91 million) and the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average (69.43), but only have one win?

"You hate to miss a cut," he told me. "But no one remembers the guy who only gets a bunch of top-10s."

I told Kuchar about a conversation that I had late last year with Bill Haas, who despite winning twice in 2010, was more envious of Kuchar's consistent play.

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Scott Halleran/Getty Images In 2010, Matt Kuchar recorded 11 top-10 finishes and rode his playoff victory at the Barclays all the way to the PGA Tour money title. So far in 2011, the 33-year-old owns eight top-10s.

"Let's say I don't win next year, but I have six or seven top-10s," Haas said. "I would almost consider that as good a year as 2010 just because you're competing week in and week out."

Coming into the Barclays this week, Kuchar is on course for a similar 2011. He owns eight top-10s, stands 12th in the FedEx Cup standings and looks to be a lock to make the Presidents Cup team. He is one of only five players in the top-20 in the standings without a win this season.

This Thanksgiving, he and Gary Woodland will represent the United States at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China. But lately he's struggled with his game. For the first time in two years he missed consecutive cuts (at the British and then Canadian opens) and he hasn't had a top-10 since the Memorial in June. He got the weekend off at Royal St. George's, where he was one of the American favorites coming into the year's third major.

"There is something about the British Open," the 33-year-old Kuchar said. "I think I'm 1-for-7 making cuts. Every time I would come back from a British Open, I didn't feel like there was a jet-lag problem or a golf problem, but something about that, and it's called the third quarter I struggle with."

Kuchar came to the Barclays last year off a tie for 10th at the PGA Championship. At the Ridgewood C.C. in Paramus, N.J., he closed with a final-round 66 to get into a playoff with Martin Laird.

On the first playoff hole, Kuchar hit one of the most memorable shots of the year -- a 7-iron from 192 yards out of the rough with some overhanging limbs in front of him. The ball came out low and perfect and it chased onto the back of the green where it caught the slope and rolled to within 30 inches of the hole.

At his post-round news conference, Kuchar seemed relieved to get his third tour win. But he wasn't shy about telling how proud he was of all those top-10s.

"I would have shut down [for] the year had I not won and been very pleased with my year," he said. "To win, it's an incredible year."

Kuchar hasn't won a tournament since, but comes into this week's feeling like his game is in good form.

"You always want to follow up a good year with another one," Kuchar said. "But last year wasn't like having one or two good weeks. It was a lot of good weeks. You can't play well all year being lucky a couple of times.

"My goal this year was to have multiple wins and to get away from winning just once a year. That hasn't happened, but it's been nice to continue with solid and steady play. I still have a few weeks left to get back into that winner's circle."

Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing.

That line is attributed to Vince Lombardi and it's the standard by which most performances are judged in the sports world. Kuchar probably uses that vaunted "W" word more than most players because he's always near the leaderboard. But a top-10 is nothing to dismiss.

Is it fair to compare the world No. 1 to another golfer based on wins? Luke Donald has been the No. 1 player in the world since late May and has a PGA Tour-leading 10 top-10s. But he has just one win on the PGA Tour in 2011, coming at the Accenture-Match Play in February.

Are players like Donald and Kuchar the new model for dominance in the game -- supplanting the otherworldly brilliance of Tiger Woods as the only standard of success?

"I have to try and not get dragged into everyone else's expectations," Donald said on Tuesday at the Barclays. "I think people think of Tiger Woods when they think of No. 1 and what he achieved.

"I've got my own kind of agenda, and I'm working toward winning and winning as much as I can, and winning majors," he added. "But I feel like if I'm not in contention and don't have chances, then I'm not going to win. And at least I'm giving myself a chance."

Every player would love to have the consistency of a Kuchar or a Donald.

"I've won this year," Sean O'Hair said Tuesday. "But I haven't done anything else. What Donald and Kuchar are able to do week in and week out is what I want for myself. But I still have a lot of work to do to get there."

"I definitely don't want to be one of those players that wins and does nothing else all year. It's a lot easier to win out here if you have a lot of top-10s under your belt."

Spencer Levin doesn't have Donald's pedigree, but this year he has been almost as consistent in his own right -- earning 11 top-25 finishes in 24 starts.

"They add up," Levin said at the PGA Championship. "But a win can sometimes give you three years out here if you win early in the season. You can just play free. But no doubt from week to week we're all trying to have good finishes of any kind."

Last week at the PGA, Woods was asked about the relative parity on the PGA Tour and the lack of a dominant player. He expressed the need for rivalries.

"Well, I've always been one that enjoyed watching dynasties or rivalries," said Woods, pointing to the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics dynasties of the 1980s.

You're probably not going to see a great rivalry between the likes of Donald and Kuchar, but there is nothing wrong with good, consistent play. That type of top-10 compiler is probably going to win this week at the Barclays on a course -- Plainfield Country Club -- that none of the players in the field have ever played.

"I think it puts everybody on a level playing field," Donald said. "No one has more experience than anyone else."

On Tuesday at the Barclays' practice range, Bubba Watson and his caddie Teddy Scott said the greens were the most challenging aspect of the course and to beware of the false areas that funnel balls off the putting surfaces.

"You're going to have [to] really control your distances into the greens," said Watson, who starts the playoffs eighth in the FedEx Cup standings.

The two-time winner in 2011 pointed out that although there was ample rough on the course, the landing areas in the fairways were very wide. Watson -- who played the front nine on Tuesday and the back nine on Monday -- said that recent rain softened the course, but the Donald Ross-design wasn't playing long so he could still hit 2-irons and 4-woods off the tee.

Plainfield underwent a major renovation during the past 10 years and has possibly three drivable par-4s: the 4th, 9th and the 18th holes, the last of which is a 285-yard dogleg left, which should offer some drama on Sunday evening since many players are taking it straight at the green. The left-handed Watson said he plans to hit a cut driver there because he can't hit his cut 4-wood far enough to reach the green.

"In terms of excitement, I think it probably will add to the tournament," Donald said. "You're going to have to go up there and choose what you want to do and be committed to that. I think it will make for a fun, exciting finish."

Farrell Evans covers golf for ESPN and can be contacted at evans.espn@gmail.com

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Farrell Evans

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• Senior golf writer for ESPN.com
• Wrote for Sports Illustrated/Golf Magazine for 9 years
• Played college golf at Florida A&M