Early career Kuchar turned professional in November 2000, after working briefly for a financial services firm. He missed the sign-up deadline for the 2000 qualifying school. In 2001 he was given sponsors' exemptions to some PGA Tour tournaments, and earned enough money to be fully exempt for the 2002 season. Kuchar's first win on the
PGA Tour came at the
Honda Classic in
2002. A tough year in
2005 saw him win under $403,000, 159th on the money list, which caused a loss of his tour card. He failed to regain it at
qualifying school and played on the
Nationwide Tour in
2006. Kuchar won its
Henrico County Open and finished tenth on the Nationwide Tour money list to earn back his PGA Tour card for
2007. He retained his card for the next two seasons by finishing 115th on the money list in 2007 and 70th in
2008.
2009 Seven years after his first PGA Tour win, Kuchar won for a second time during the
Fall Series in
2009 at the
Turning Stone Resort Championship. He prevailed in a playoff over
Vaughn Taylor that concluded on Monday due to darkness on Sunday evening.
2010 Kuchar made the
Ryder Cup team in
2010, taking the eighth and last merit position on the 12-man U.S. squad on August 15. At the time, Kuchar led the PGA Tour in top-10 finishes for the year, but had not won a tournament in
2010. The winless streak ended two weeks later at
The Barclays on August 29, which was played at the Ridgewood Country Club in
Paramus, New Jersey; Kuchar defeated
Martin Laird on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Kuchar won the
Vardon Trophy and
Byron Nelson Award in 2010 for lowest scoring average and the PGA Tour's
Arnold Palmer Award for leading the money list.
2011 Kuchar started off
2011 well with three consecutive top-10 finishes in the first three weeks of the season. He finished T6 at the opening PGA Tour event, the
Hyundai Tournament of Champions on
Maui. The following week at the
Sony Open in Hawaii, he played his way to a T5 finish and then at the
Bob Hope Classic achieved a T7 finish. In February, Kuchar reached the semi-finals of the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, where he suffered a 6&5 defeat by eventual champion
Luke Donald. In the 3rd place playoff match, he defeated fellow American
Bubba Watson, 2&1. Previously during the week Kuchar had beaten
Anders Hansen on the 22nd hole in round one,
Bo Van Pelt in round two,
Rickie Fowler in round three and
Yang Yong-eun at the quarter-final stage. Kuchar finished tied for second at the
Memorial Tournament at
Muirfield Village in June 2011 behind
Steve Stricker. This was his eighth top-10 finish of the season and took him to his highest ranking to date of world number six. Kuchar finished second at
The Barclays, two strokes behind the winner,
Dustin Johnson. The tournament was shortened to 54 holes due to
Hurricane Irene. This finish moved him to second in the
FedEx Cup standings. Kuchar and
Gary Woodland combined to win the
Omega Mission Hills World Cup in November.
2012 Kuchar had his best performance in a major championship at
The Masters when he finished in a tie for third. Kuchar was tied for the lead on the back nine on Sunday, but bogeyed the par three 16th and finished two strokes out of the playoff between
Bubba Watson and
Louis Oosthuizen. Kuchar won the biggest tournament of his career in May when he won
The Players Championship at
TPC Sawgrass in
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He shot a final round of 70 (−2) to win by two strokes over runners-up Rickie Fowler,
Martin Laird,
Ben Curtis, and
Zach Johnson. He entered the final round in the last group, one stroke behind
Kevin Na. After bogeying the first hole, he played a near-perfect round, except for a three-putt bogey on the 17th, to hold off the challengers. The win elevated Kuchar to a career high of number five in the world rankings.
2013 He won the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February, defeating
Hunter Mahan 2&1 in the final. During the final, Kuchar built up an early lead and was 4 up at the turn. Mahan mounted a comeback on the back nine, winning four of the next seven holes to trail by just one with two to play. Mahan's wild drive on the par-4 17th put him in trouble, and after Kuchar knocked his approach close, Mahan failed to chip in for par and conceded the hole, which ended the match and gave Kuchar his first World Golf Championship title. Throughout the week, Kuchar was never more than one down in any of his matches and only trailed three times on his way to the win. He defeated
Hiroyuki Fujita,
Sergio García,
Nicolas Colsaerts,
Robert Garrigus and
Jason Day en route to the final. Kuchar moved back into the world's top 10 after this victory. His second win in
2013 came at the
Memorial Tournament in early June. Late in the year Kuchar played in two events in Australia. He finished runner-up to
Adam Scott at the
Australian Masters and finished fourth in the
2013 World Cup of Golf.
2014 In the final round of the
Valero Texas Open in March, Kuchar held a share of the lead with nine holes to play but bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes and finished T-4. The next week, he had a four-stroke lead going into the final round at the
Shell Houston Open but lost a playoff to
Matt Jones' 42-yard chip-in on the first extra hole. Kuchar was again in contention the following week at the
Masters Tournament, where he was tied for the lead on Sunday before four-putting the fourth hole and finishing T-5. A week later, Kuchar won for the seventh time on the
PGA Tour with a one stroke victory at the
RBC Heritage. He shot a final-round 64, which included a chip-in birdie from a greenside bunker on the 18th hole to come from four shots behind and claim victory.
2015 At the
Sony Open in Hawaii in January, Kuchar opened with 65–63 to lead after two rounds. He stalled on the weekend, however, to finish tied for third. In the final round Kuchar failed to make a birdie, snapping his streak of 255 rounds on the PGA Tour with at least one birdie. The following week Kuchar tied for second, one stroke behind the winner, at the
Humana Challenge. In April, Kuchar contended at the
RBC Heritage and finished in fifth place. His best performance in the season's majors came in August at the
PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin where he finished tied for seventh. Kuchar played in only two official events outside of the PGA Tour in 2015 but did very well in both. He finished one stroke back to fellow American
Rickie Fowler at the
Scottish Open and won the
Fiji International, an official event on the
PGA Tour of Australasia. Kuchar had seven top-tens for the season but did not win a
PGA Tour tournament for the first time in four years. He finished well down the money list after finishing in the top 10 in earnings in four of the preceding five seasons.
2016 Kuchar had 9 top-10s heading into the 2016 Summer Olympics, and continued his good run with a bronze medal after a final round 63.
2017 In the 2017 season, Kuchar competed in 26 events on the PGA Tour, making the cut in 22, including nine top-10 finishes. He finished tied for fourth at the
Masters, his fourth top-10 finish in that event. At the
Open Championship, Kuchar shared the first-round lead with
Brooks Koepka and
Jordan Spieth and finished rounds two and three in solo second behind Spieth. After Spieth's near meltdown on the 13th hole of the final round, Kuchar held a one-stroke lead with five holes to play. However, Spieth played the last five holes in five-under-par to claim the championship by three strokes over Kuchar, who finished three strokes ahead of third-place finisher
Li Haotong. Kuchar finished the year 14th in the FedEx Cup standings and represented the United States in the President's Cup, posting a 2–1 record in the United States' win.
2018 In the
2017–18 PGA Tour season, Kuchar had another winless campaign. He played in 24 events. He had four top-10 finishes and made 20 cuts. He won $1,720,097 for the year and finished 76th in the season long
FedEx Cup. U.S. Ryder Cup captain
Jim Furyk named Kuchar as a non-playing vice-captain for the U.S. team in the
2018 Ryder Cup. The U.S. team lost to the European team 17 1/2 to 10 1/2 at
Le Golf National outside of Paris, France. On November 11, 2018, Kuchar won the
Mayakoba Golf Classic in Cancun, Mexico. This event was part of the
2018–19 PGA Tour season. Kuchar took home a winner's check of $1.296 million and paid his caddie, David Giral Ortiz, the amount they agreed to for a top ten finish ($4,000) and an additional $1,000 on top of that to equal $5,000, which is a 0.38 percent tip of the $1.296 million, causing a social media controversy. Kuchar offered an additional $15,000 payment to Ortiz, which would have amounted to a total of $20,000 or 1.54 percent of the winner's check. This amount is below the average payout (10 percent) for a full-time caddie whose player wins. Because Kuchar's regular caddie was not available, Ortiz was hired and agreed to the terms presented. Ortiz has stated to Golf.com that he never expected the full 10 percent payout and that "Matt is a good person and a great player. He treated me very well. I am only disappointed by how it all finished." When asked about giving his caddie such a low tip, Kuchar defended his decision by stating, "For a guy who makes 200 a day, a 5000 dollar week is a really big week". On February 15, 2019, Kuchar apologized and agreed to pay Ortiz the requested $50,000 and also donate an unspecified amount to local Cancun charities. At the end of the 2018–19 PGA Tour regular season, Rory McIlroy jokingly roasted Matt Kuchar over the caddie pay controversy. At the initial award ceremony of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, which awarded a $10 million bonus pool to the top 10 players in the final regular season FedEx Cup standings, after Kuchar playfully joked about McIlroy's narrow 2-point margin for an extra $300,000, McIlroy highlighted that "And we all know what money means to him."
2019 On January 13, 2019, Kuchar won the
Sony Open in Hawaii, his second win in three starts. On March 31, 2019, Kuchar reached the championship round of the
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for the second time in his career, having previously done so in 2013 when he went on to win the title. He lost to
Kevin Kisner, 3 & 2, in the final. In December 2019, Kuchar played on the U.S. team at the
2019 Presidents Cup at
Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. The U.S. team won 16–14. Kuchar went 0–1–3, but battled back from 3 down against
Louis Oosthuizen to halve the match in Sunday singles. Kuchar made the Cup-clinching putt on 17.
2020 On January 19, 2020, Kuchar won the
Singapore Open on the
Japan Golf Tour. The tournament was co-sanctioned by the
Asian Tour.
2025 After retaining full PGA Tour status for eighteen years, Kuchar ended the 2025 season 118th in the FedEx Cup standings, which earns him conditional status for 2026. Kuchar also had the option of using one of two career earnings exemptions (top 25 and top 50 in all-time earnings), which he opted not to use for the year. He said that the earnings exemption would likely get him three or four more starts and none of the signature events. ==Personal life==