Albany Herald

Photo by Danny Aller

ATLANTA - Former Georgia Tech All-America golfer Matt Kuchar has earned an automatic berth on the United States team which will compete in the 2010 Ryder Cup Matches, Oct. 1-3, at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales.

Kuchar, a native of Winter Park, Fla., who lives in Atlanta, will be the fourth different Georgia Tech alumnus to play for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup, joining Larry Mize (1987), David Duval (1999, 2002) and Stewart Cink (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008).

Ryder Cup 2010 official site - http://www.rydercup.com/2010/

Kuchar, who won the 1997 U.S. Amateur while at Georgia Tech and has won twice in the PGA Tour, finished eighth in the PGA of America points standings. Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson and Jeff Overton also qualified for the U.S. team based on points accumulated over a two-year period. Team captain Corey Pavin will select four others, which will be announced on Sept. 7.

Cink, the 2010 British Open champion, is 14th on the points list and is a candidate to be a captain's choice. If so, he and Kuchar would become the second pair of Tech alumni to play on the same Ryder Cup team, joining Cink and Duval in 2002.

Kuchar, who graduated from Tech in 2000 with a degree in Management, won the 2002 Honda Classic and the 2009 Turning Stone Resort Championship. He ranks ninth in the FedEx Cup standings this year, has nine top-10 finishes and has earned more than $2.8 million. He is No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has earned more than $10 million for his career.

At Tech, he earned first-team All-America honors in 1998 and 2000, won the Fred Haskins Award in 1998 and the Dave Williams Award in 2000 (both national player of the year awards). He made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team four times, was the ACC Player of the Year in 1998 and played on the U.S. Walker Cup team in 1999.