Though Matt Kuchar's smile was so wholesome as to make Phil Mickelson look like a street urchin, it seems that Justin Leonard wasn't all that impressed with him when they played together three years ago. But Leonard was in a much better mood on their reunion at La Cantera last Sunday.

As it happened, both players performed admirably. While Leonard retained the Texas Open for a top prize of $540,000, Kuchar's share of second place should secure him a USPGA Tour card for next season.

He and JJ Henry each received $264,000 for being tied second, two strokes behind Leonard, who became the first player to retain the title since Arnold Palmer won three-in-a-row from 1960 to '62. Kuchar's reward boosted his tournament earnings to $533,253, leaving him in third place on the non-member's earning list.

More importantly, it would be good enough to get him into the top-85, making him virtually certain of a place in the top-125 who will receive exempt status at the end of the season.

It will be recalled that, as the 1997 US Amateur champion, Kuchar received an invitation into the 1998 US Masters in which he won the amateur medal by finishing tied 21st behind Mark O'Meara. Two months later, he was again leading amateur in the US Open at the Olympic Club, San Francisco.

That was where he and Leonard first played together, and it seems that the reigning British Open champion was not very taken with the antics of Kuchar and his caddying father, who behaved like a pair of over-excited children.

Mind you, Leonard's mood would also not have been helped by the fact that by finishing in a share of 14th place, the amateur was no fewer than 26 places ahead of him. Such matters were consigned very much to the past, however, by the importance of Sunday's victory. As Leonard's first win in 31 tournament starts, it came after a largely non-productive period.

Along the way, he missed out on automatic selection for the current US Ryder Cup team and skipper Curtis Strange wasn't going to risk a wild card on a player going through the process of re-shaping his swing.

But there is considerable compensation for Leonard in securing a place in the Tour Championship, which is being played at Houston at the end of this month.