Matt Kuchar remembers his dad caddying for him at the US Open
Matt Kuchar remembers what it was like for his dad celebrating his 14th place finish as an amateur at Olympic Club in the US Open.
By
Kyle Porter
•
3 min read
Each day during US Open week, Kyle Porter explores a golfers' father-son relationship and how it shaped who he is as a person and a golfer. Wednesday: Matt Kuchar in part four of a five-part series.
Matt Kuchar's father, Peter Kuchar, knows all about what the U.S. Open on Father's Day means. That's because Peter caddied for Matt in 1998 when Kuchar finished 14th as an amateur at Olympic Club.
The elder Kuchar was chastised by a few golfers for not handling himself in a professional manner. He responded with this great quote from Sports Illustrated:
"Your son just chipped in for birdie. What are you going to do? Stand there and pretend you're at a funeral?"
Matt agrees that his father's time caddying for him at that US Open and at the Masters makes up some of the best memories of his career.
"It's hard to beat when he was actually caddying for me. Winning a US Amateur with him caddying for me and playing so well in the Masters and US Open. The US Open has to be a highlight.
"I was still an amateur and he was caddying, and championship Sunday was my 20th birthday as well as Father's Day at the Olympic Club. It's probably the biggest highlight for me -- walking on every tee and having Happy Birthday sung and dad getting 'happy Father's Days' at every tee box."
Kuchar also said it wasn't the first time he and dad had walked the same path together.
"I grew up and did everything following dad's footsteps. Dad was a tennis player growing up and I followed him and wanted to be a tennis player like he was. I remember playing ping pong every night with him. I remember him being coach of my soccer team and my basketball team.
"I can remember being dropped off every day after school, I wanted to play golf and hit balls until dad would get done with work. Then he would meet me and we'd play nine holes every afternoon."
Matt is a renowned tennis player these days -- definitely the best two-way golf and tennis player on tour -- and he says he might have pursued that more if not for a Christmas present from his parents when he was 12.
"Mom upgraded our membership for Christmas -- we were just tennis members -- upgraded us to full country club golf privileges. We went out and I think dad was a once- or twice-a-year golfer at the time. We started giving it more of a try and got hooked and addicted to it."
As with any father-son relationship, Matt says half the fun is trying to take down dad.
"He always had a fatherly advantage -- you have the hardest time as a kid being able to break through and beat your dad for the first time. We competed in everything. He helped me along and made me better in all the sports I did. It took me a while but to finally beat him was definitely a big step."
It wasn't long after that when Matt started leaving Peter in the dust on the course.
"Our learning curves were vastly different. He went from a 12 to a 10 to an eight at a rather slow pace. I remember getting an 18-handicap and rather quickly becoming an eight. I remember we were each eight handicaps for about two weeks and I kept going and he kind of stayed there."
Matt has kept going. He won the Match Play Championship earlier this year and the Memorial just over a week ago for the sixth win of his PGA Tour career. He is a bona fide superstar these days.
And though Peter's responsibilities from his days as a caddie are extremely scaled back, Matt says golf is still their sweet spot.
"[His role] is mainly support. As far as golf and strategy, I've kind of got that part figured out and rely on instructors for mechanical help. It's more just having fun; we still get together and get to play a fair bit. That's the fun part for us."
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