Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 08 July 2008 /

He may be short with the big stick but that doesn't matter at the John Deere Classic, where Kuchar can belie odds of [100.0]

It's all but a fading memory, but there was a time when Matt Kuchar was the bright young thing of US golf.

Back in 1998, he was even being mentioned in the same breath as Tiger Woods when making a big impact as an amateur in both the Masters and US Open. It seemed inevitable that if he was that good at the age of 20, he would surely be a regular contender once experience had been gained.

It hasn't worked out that way though. He has won a couple of times, once each on the Nationwide and PGA Tours, the last of which was in 2006. His statistics explain why. Despite getting older and stronger, Kuchar is simply too short off the tee to regularly challenge the very best, ranking 189th in driving distance over the past three months.

That should make no difference this week though, because years of form have shown that driving accuracy is much more important than power in the John Deere Classic. Kuchar played well on this layout last year to finish 13th, and has put in a number of good performances this term when the course has played to his strengths.

Four top-10s is a reasonable return for a player at his level, and suggests he can be competitive this week in a very weak field. As always the JD Classic has struggled to attract the big names due to its pre-Open slot, and besides short-priced favourite Kenny Perry there are very few players who stand out as markedly superior players to Kuchar.

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