“Jay needs to be fired”: Fans react as Jay Monahan responds to Matt Kuchar’s Monday delay in the Wyndham Championship

Matt Kuchar didn't complete his round on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship, an incident that drew varied reactions from the golf world, including PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. While his fellow golfers finished up the 18th hole, Kuchar decided to stop play because of darkness.

The end of the second and the full third and fourth rounds all happened on Sunday, August 11, so it was later than usual. Kuchar was the lone golfer to return on Monday morning and conclude the tournament. He received plenty of backlash from fans and analysts, but PGA Tour commissioner Monahan had a different view. Monahan said:

"Matt had every right to do exactly what he did… There are so many unique circumstances that come up on the PGA Tour and that was one of them.”

This seemingly prompted the fan backlash to be turned on Monahan. Plenty of fans online were upset at Monahan for defending the player. One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

"Jay needs to be fired. He has no idea what is going on"

"Like anybody cares what Jay Monahan thinks about anything," another said.

"Just have some common sense. I guess every golfer 'has the right' to take 5 minutes addressing the golf ball too," one added.

Here are a few more reactions from fans online:

"Jay is the 2nd biggest piece of crap in sports"

"Then just accept us fans have [zero] feeling you give a s**t about us and the product," another criticized Monahan.

"Jay is much a pushover," one fan chimed in.

"Did anyone ask him why tour officials didn't call for a stoppage a hole earlier?" another asked.

"Wow, Big Jay grinding. Don’t work too hard, Jay!" another one joked.

Kuchar's decision was not without controversy, and evidently, neither was the choice to speak up on his behalf. This is despite the quotes coming from the most powerful person on the PGA Tour.

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PGA Tour official says Matt Kuchar was well within his rights to play on Monday

Matt Kuchar's choice to play the final hole and take a line-of-sight relief on Monday morning allowed him to par at the Wyndham Championship, which may keep him in the top 125 and thus PGA Tour eligible for 2025. It was not a decision without significant ramifications.

It was also a legal decision. Jay Monahan agreed with Kuchar's decision and Chief Competitions Officer Tyler Dennis detailed why he was allowed to make his choice. He said (via Bunkered):

“The officials basically have a standard operating procedure that right around sunset they will indicate that we’re going to suspend play. (On Sunday, there was) effectively one group left, the guys in front of them were almost done."

Dennis added:

"I think Matt teed off a couple groups before sunset, and our head official notified the group that they were able to continue or stop if they needed to. We just want to apply the rules in the same manner each week, and that’s what happened.”

Matt Kuchar ended up making par as a result, something that seemed difficult to imagine when he landed in the rough before calling it a day on Sunday evening.