Off the Record with Matt McCarty

At the 27-minute mark of my podcast with three-time KFT winner Matt McCarty, I panicked as I looked in the right hand corner of the podcast software. Up until that point, Matt had offered his thoughts on his season, the three-win PGA Tour promotion, and why he had decided to put the promotion on hold to finish the KFT season. The blue record button that I had failed to hit might as well have been a middle finger. 

I’m an idiot. And I didn’t have the heart to tell Matt at the moment. Hell, I didn’t have the heart to tell him at all. He’s finding out in this article!

That is why I “decided” to write an article about Matt McCarty.

Matt McCarty has played 73 career KFT events since turning pro a little over three years ago. He had zero career wins when he teed it up in his 68th career event just eight weeks ago. Six weeks later, McCarty became the 13th player since 1997 – when the promotion rule was introduced, and the first since Mito Pereria in 2021 – to earn a three-win promotion to the PGA Tour. 

However, the decision to take the three-win promotion isn’t as easy as you think. The player who finishes number one in the KFT points list is fully exempt on the PGA Tour in 2025. Any player getting a three-win promotion is also fully exempt in 2025. However, there is one big caveat: the player who finishes number one on the points list also gets into the Players Championship and U.S. Open. And with three events left, Matt is not guaranteed to finish first in points if he decides to take the promotion to the PGA Tour right away. Max McGreevy, Tim Widing, and Harry Higgs all have very legitimate chances to pass him. So Matt had a decision to make: delay his lifelong dream of playing on the PGA Tour for a few more weeks, play a mix of PGA and KFT, or fully commit to finishing off the season on KFT.

Matt graciously called last week and asked that we delay the pod recording until he decided what to do about his promotion. I, of course, said yes, and we got together to record last Thursday (hit the record button, you dumbass!). 

I asked him what had changed this season, especially over the last six events, when he won three times. McCarty said that he felt more comfortable on the KFT (I’d have exact quotes here normally, but, you know, I didn’t hit that giant blue button in the top right corner) and focused more on having more fun on and off the course. 

McCarty said he has consciously gone out to dinner and hung out with other players during tournament weeks. He said it is easy to just go back to your hotel and stay by yourself. 

On the course, McCarty and his caddie Devrath Das, a former college teammate at Santa Clara, have also focused on being a bit more loose on the course (one job in a podcast, one job, hit the button). The season can get long, and multiple weeks on the road in a row can lead to short tempers and stress, so McCarty and Das try to bring some fun to the grind. 

After winning for the first time, McCarty said that although the win relieved a bit of the stress of knowing his place in the top 30 was almost certainly secure, the stress of getting into the top 30 was quickly replaced by the stress of moving up the points list as much as possible (at this point, about 15 minutes in, things are going great).

The second win brought a touch more relief, but the race to number one became the new priority (a quote driving this point home would be ideal here, but it is hard to pull those quotes from a non-existent recording).

The third win came two weeks ago in Boise, completing an unreal stretch of golf for McCarty, who has moved to 77th in the official world golf rankings. McCarty has made 11 of his last 11 cuts, including the three wins, one runner-up, and a worst finish of 31st. In the 44 rounds, he had just two rounds that were over par, and he was a combined 198-under. 

Following the third win, McCarty talked with his agent, Mom, and friends to decide what to do. McCarty ultimately decided that playing out the rest of the KFT season and protecting the number one spot on the points list was the best decision. Locking up spots in the Players and the U.S. Open took priority. So Thursday, he teed it up at the second KFT Finals event in Nashville. He will then play the last two Finals events before moving on to the PGA Tour. 

As he started to talk about why he decided to finish out the KFT season, I looked to the top right of the screen and realized I hadn’t hit record. I panicked and decided to just keep going, as pushing it now was pointless. Also, it prompts the other person on screen to agree to be recorded. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. 

So, Matt, thank you for your time, and I’m really sorry. 

It was a really good pod. You guys missed out. 

‍