Golf | Matt Kuchar wins PGA Tour event on 6th playoff hole

VERONA, N.Y. — It had been so long since Matt Kuchar had won on the PGA Tour that a huge case of nerves was a given, especially when faced with a sudden-death playoff.

"I had a hard time falling asleep [Sunday night]. My mind was racing," Kuchar said Monday after defeating Vaughn Taylor on the sixth extra hole of the Turning Stone Resort Championship. "I was extremely nervous. It's a feeling that you don't feel very often. It's exciting to feel it. It really makes you feel alive."

Kuchar rolled in an 18-inch putt for a par for the victory, his second on Tour and first since the 2002 Honda Classic in his first full season on Tour.

"It's hard to describe the feeling," said the 31-year-old Kuchar, who missed the cut at Turning Stone two years ago. "They're so difficult to win. If you don't win, there's not a whole lot of rewards.

"The game beats you up."

Kuchar knows from experience. A heralded amateur player — he was the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion after Tiger Woods' three-year run — and a standout in college at Georgia Tech who had to cope with a long gap between victories.

Kuchar earned $1.08 million; his best previous finish in a tournament this year was a fifth-place tie at the Memorial in June.

Tied for the lead after 72 holes at 17-under-par 271, neither player managed to win after two playoff holes Sunday. The playoff was staged over two par-5 holes, the 12th and 18th, and the par-4 13th.

Kuchar missed a chance to win on the first hole Monday when his short putt lipped out at No. 13 as each player bogeyed the hole.

"There certainly were a lot of nerves on that opening hole," Kuchar said.

Kuchar got a huge break on the final hole of the playoff when Taylor hit his tee shot into the water hazard along the right side of the fairway on No. 13 and had to take a penalty stroke.

"Just a bad swing," said Taylor, who earned $648,000.

With a light mist blowing in his face, Kuchar hit his second shot into the rough on a slope to the right of the green and pitched inside 2 feet to set up a par.

"I was nervous on that putt from 18 inches," Kuchar said. "It felt great to hear it hit the back of the hole."

Taylor finished with a double bogey on a hole he had parred during each of the four rounds.

"I felt like I had a chance to win a couple times," said Taylor, who has two victories on Tour, the Reno-Tahoe Open in 2004 and in 2005. "Maybe next week."

It was the first six-hole playoff on the PGA Tour since Greg Norman beat Larry Mize at the 1986 Kemper Open.

"You're just so nervous," Kuchar said. "After I missed the short putt at 13 and hit my chip 20 feet by the hole [at No. 18], I'm like, 'Aw, what have you have done here? You've just given this thing up.' "

Turning Stone is the first tournament of the Fall Series, which is comprised of five events.

Players are vying to finish the year in the top 125 on the money list to retain full exemption on the Tour for 2010, and the 33-year-old Taylor had been on the cusp at No. 131 in earnings before the tournament.

"I was trying to keep the [Tour] card this Fall Series, and I think I locked it up," Taylor said.

"So, you know, one goal accomplished. That was just a good battle."

Other tournament

• Simon Dyson of England won the Dunhill Links Championship by three strokes after shooting a 6-under 66 that included birdies on six of the first seven holes on the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Dyson, 31, finished at 20-under 268. England's Oliver Wilson shot a 65 and shared second place with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (69).

"I'm absolutely buzzing," Dyson said.