ORLANDO, Fla. – Matt Kuchar and his college son birdied all but three holes for a 15-under 57 to build a two-shot lead over John Daly and his college son in the PNC Championship on a stunning Saturday when both sons carried the load in a scramble format.
“He’s the horse and the saddle. That’s all there is to it,” Daly, the two-time major champion, said of John Daly II, the Southern amateur champion and Arkansas senior.
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Cameron Kuchar, who will attend TCU next year, holed a driver and hit a toe wedge on the first hole for birdie. Kuchar followed with a drive, wedge and putt for birdie on the next one. That’s when Cameron came up with the idea of keeping track of the “solo birdies” made on his own shots.
“He made a higher total. It was way higher than my solo birdie total,” Kuchar said of his son. “He got the best of me today.”
The game within the game – Cameron won – brought them to the low-scoring Ritz-Carlton Club and a chance to win the Willie Park Trophy, a red belt awarded to the winning team.
2025 PNC Championship – First Round
2025 PNC Championship: starting times, pairs for the final race
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Start times and pairings for the final round of the team event featuring the overall winners and their families.
The only problem was the par 5 14th hole with water running down the left side. Both were in the fairway. Both fell into the water. They had to fight for par, which in this format looked like a bogey.
“You feel a little deflated walking away from a par, especially after the drive he hit,” Kuchar said. “The best thing you can do is get back into it right away, and Cam did that the next day.”
The tournament is popular among players who have won major Players Championship tournaments and bring one of their children or a parent. Former US Open champion Gary Woodland was the only newcomer among 20 teams. He is recovering from brain surgery in September 2023 and his father, Dan, is a cancer survivor. They shot 61.
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The final round on Sunday is also a scramble format, when each team hits with the best ball, so it will be a sprint to the finish with several teams still in contention, including two women’s.
Steve Stricker and his daughter Izzi, a sophomore at Wisconsin, were 12 under 60 with two-time LPGA major champion Nelly Korda and her father, former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda.
Also at 60 are Davis Love III and Davis Love IV – his name is Dru – who won it twice in 2012 and 2018. Dru Love had an Asian tour card that kept him from playing at PNC, but he no longer has a card on any tour and the Loves were late entries when a number of players – Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas and Gary Player – were kept from playing due to injuries or health issues.
Daly and Little John are also past champions, beating Woods and his son Charlie in 2021. The son delivered the goods on the par-5 final hole with an 8-iron from 190 yards to 10 feet.
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Annika Sorenstam and her son, Will McGee, were part of the 11-under-61 group that included The Woodlands and Justin Leonard and his college son Luke (Villanova). David Duval and his son were also 61, alongside two-time defending champions Bernhard Langer and Jason, Sons of Wall Street.
