Jhonattan Vegas leads Matt Kuchar by one going into final round of 3M Open

The roars that reverberated around the TPC Twin Cities’ 18th hole grandstands Saturday afternoon — and the accompanying one-syllable cheer — meant only one thing at the 3M Open:

Matt Kuchar is back in contention on the PGA Tour.

The veteran has played 18 events this season but missed 11 cuts and finished no better than tied for 17th in any of the others. That is until Saturday’s 8-under-par 63 put him in second place, one shot behind Jhonattan Vegas’ 16 under par in Blaine.

Vegas is 39 and hasn’t won since the 2017 Canadian Open, but he shot a 63 himself — another of four posted Saturday — that included a closing birdie. That was good enough for the lead despite Kuchar’s birdie-eagle finish that left him with tap-ins on each hole.

Kuchar is 46 and a nine-time PGA Tour winner and Olympic bronze medalist who hasn’t won since the Sony Open in January 2019. He chipped in from 31 yards short of the 18th green to briefly claim first place Saturday before Vegas trumped him.

In contrast, third-place Maverick McNealy and Patrick Fishburn, tied for fourth, are looking for their first tour victory, while world 11th-ranked Sahith Theegala is seeking his second. Cam Davis, tied for sixth place, won just last month at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

The crowd reaction to Kuchar’s closing eagle was the first shot this year that ricocheted around the stands and down the 18th fairway.

Fans cheered “Kuuuch” while he signed the ball, kissed it and handed it to someone in the greenside stands.

“It’s exciting,” Kuchar said. “Awfully nice to get it on your last hole knowing there’s no more golf to play. You can kind of enjoy the moment a little more than if you’ve got three or four holes left to go. So doing it on 18 is a nice way to finish for sure.”

He was asked if he tires all these years of that guttural chanting of his surname.

“No, I was talking with [playing partner] Sam Burns today and he asked when that started for me,” Kuchar said. “I said I remember playing soccer growing up as a kid. I remember when I was 8 years old, the first jersey I got said ‘Kuch’ on the back. It’s kind of been with me ever since. It is fun to hear the Kuuches wherever I go.”

Kuchar made a double-bogey 5 at the par-3 fourth hole, then made seven birdies, that eagle and no bogeys or worse the rest of the way. His tee shot at the watery par-3 17th hole rolled on by just inches, the best shot on the day’s hardest hole, until Vegas did nearly the same.

Saturday was Kuchar’s 555th PGA Tour start; 117 of those were top-10 finishes. He first won at the 2002 Honda Classic.

“I’ve put together a handful of good rounds, but no good weeks,” Kuchar said. “I started the year and I felt as good as I’ve felt about my game, my body, everything. I was so excited. But things didn’t go quite right early on and it just kind of cycled in a bad way. ... I still remain excited. I still feel like there’s a lot of good that I’m doing.”

Kuchar is 155th on the current FedEx Cup standings, with only one tournament left after this one to qualify for the playoffs. The top 70 is the cutoff to reach the St. Jude Championship. Vegas is ranked 149th.

Vegas has won three times on the PGA Tour, dating back to the 2011 Bob Hope tournament. He won the Canadian Open in back-to-back years, 2016 and ’17.

But the Venezuelan is currently on the road back from two elbow surgeries. His best finish this year was 20th at the John Deere Classic earlier this month.

He was asked how he feels to be back in contention on a Saturday night.

“Good, I mean, really good,” Vegas said. “Obviously, a lot of the effort is definitely paying back. It just kind of makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing. You’ve just got to keep working hard.”