Euro Tour announcers needle Matt Kuchar for loose-impediment removal in waste area

Note: This article has been updated to reflect that Matt Kuchar’s ball was in a waste area, not a bunker.

Matt Kuchar has been an easy target this year; he has weathered the El Tucan payment dispute, a match-play rules debacle with Sergio Garcia, and a questionable pitch-mark situation at the Memorial.

This week announcers calling the European Tour’s Porsche European Open needled Kuchar for the amount of time he spent clearing out loose impediments from around his ball in a waste area. To be clear, this practice is completely legal, but as Kuchar knelt down and meticulously removed some tiny debris from around his lie, the broadcast crew was less than impressed with how much time Kuchar spent on his expedition. Have a listen to the clip below.

Announcers were not too happy pic.twitter.com/Jnd9GItyPq

— Ladiestees (@Ladiestees1) September 6, 2019

The video begins with a close-up of Kuchar removing loose impediments around his ball in a waste area.

“He’ll be here a long time,” one of the announcers remarks, as Kuchar carefully works on the area around his ball.

“Well he’s going to have a perfect lie in a minute, if he keeps going,” the other announcer replies. “So what he’s doing, is he’s treating them like they’re all little loose impediments, and [the ball will] be on a tee peg very shortly.”

The other announcer laughs, and says, “I just don’t understand that. I think that is not quite…”

“Well he’s doing it very quickly, isn’t he?” the other says. “Because what he’s been told is he can move the bigger bits, but what he’s doing is he’s moving everything. So just get him a spade.”

It’s unclear from the clip what exactly Kuchar was removing from the waste area, but because waste areas are not hazards and are thereby treated just like any other area of the golf course, Kuchar’s removal of the loose impediments was not in breach of any rules.

Kuchar ultimately missed the cut at four over par for two rounds.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.