Grieving Matt Kuchar plays first Players Championship without father
Matt Kuchar signs autographs after his round Saturday at The Players
Matt Kuchar signs autographs for kids Saturday after shooting a third-round 73 at The Pkayers Championship.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The grieving period for PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar hasn’t totally subsided after five-plus weeks of being without the dominant male figure in his life.
It was especially tough coming to The Players Championship because this was the happiest time of the year for his father, Peter, whose residence at The Plantation was a 10-minute drive from the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Sadly, on Feb. 4, Peter passed away from a heart attack at 73 while taking Matt’s mother, Meg, on a cruise to St. Bart’s in the Caribbean for her 70th birthday.
The wave of emotions from his death still hit 46-year-old Matt, fondly known to many golf fans as “Kooch” when greeting him or chanting his name on Tour.
“A lot of people have probably dealt with something like this, but this is new for me to have somebody as close as my father pass,” Kuchar said after shooting a third-round 73 Saturday at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. “Not many highs, but lots of lows come and go.
“For no reason, something would trigger a memory that may have been sad because you knew Dad would have enjoyed it, or something comes up you wish you had done together. Now there’s not a chance. Little things pop up quite a lot that I probably wasn’t ready for that have triggered emotions.”
Beyond all the consoling text messages, phone calls and social media communication from his Tour brotherhood and playing colleagues, competing at The Players has brought on unanticipated uneasiness. Many fans have approached Kuchar to ask about his father, not knowing he’s deceased.
“The nice thing about golf is you can zone out for a while,” Kuchar said. “It’s kind of a little bit of therapy to do something like golf, but even this week, in Dad’s hometown, a fair number of people don’t know that he’s passed.
“People today were asking, ‘How’s your Dad doing?’ That’s a tricky conversation to have while playing golf and competing. It’s awkward on everybody. The standard response when he was alive was, ‘Oh, he’s doing great, he’ll be out here sometime.’ That’s easy. I wasn’t prepared for people to ask how he’s doing now.”
Processing Dad’s stunning demise
Kuchar’s last communication with his father came the day before his death, via a 30-minute FaceTime call he had with both of his parents from Matt’s home in Jupiter.
Everybody was in good spirits. Mom and Dad were on a bucket-list trip that Peter, a college tennis player at Stetson and an avid tennis/pickleball player, had planned for months.
The next day, Peter and Meg were on a SeaDream Yacht Club cruise, both enjoying a water slide off the ship’s deck into the Caribbean.
Matt is a little fuzzy on all the details, saying: “He hit the water, told Mom something was wrong. I don’t know if the paramedics brought him out of the water or how quickly they got there.”
Despite an hour-long effort to revive him, Peter, otherwise an active, healthy man who reveled in his son’s golf success, was gone. Peter’s sudden demise devastated his family and friends.
Rebecca Kuchar, his only daughter, posted on Facebook: “From the photos they shared it was clear they were having the times of their lives. Even after 51 years of marriage they were still head over heels in love — best friends, soulmates, inseparable. It ended with a swim together in [St. Bart’s]. His heart gave out.”
For Matt, the pain he feels for his mother’s loss is more intense, but at times he still catches himself forgetting that he can’t pick up the phone and call Dad.
“We were all touched and moved in different ways,” said Matt. “I think it was the first time my boys [17-year-old, Cameron and 15-year-old Carson] had seen me cry. Probably the thing I’ll miss most is Dad not seeing the boys grow up.”
Peter Kuchar was Matt’s guiding force
Like many Tour players, including Tiger Woods, it was the influence of his father that got Matt into golf.
Dad’s guidance jump-started a career that has brought him a U.S. Amateur title (1997), a Players Championship victory (2012) and becoming the first American to win an Olympic medal, earning a bronze in 2016 at Rio in Brazil.
Peter was front and center for many of Matt’s greatest golf milestones. He caddied for his Georgia Tech-playing son at his U.S. Amateur victory, then the following year at the 1998 Masters and U.S. Open when Matt made the cut and finished as the low amateur. The two also competed together at the PNC Father-Son Championship.
With nine Tour titles and over $60 million in official money earnings, the 46-year-old Kuchar feels indebted to his wife, Sybi, and other integral parts of his support system. But it’s that longtime connection with his father, on multiple levels, that resonates even more since his passing.
“Certainly, this week is a strange one to be at The Players without Dad here,” said Matt. “With me staying at the house [in Ponte Vedra Beach], he so loved this week. He couldn’t wait for it come every year, having a taste of being next to the
Kuchar, ranked as high as No. 4 in the world in 2013, hasn’t won on Tour since a four-shot victory at the 2019 Sony Open.
While processing his father’s death, Kuchar isn’t overly thrilled with the state of his game, but concedes his schedule was thrown off by tragedy.
A tie for 21st at the Sony in early January is his best finish this season. Two weeks ago, in his first tournament after his father’s death, he tied for 56th at the Cognizant Classic. After missing four consecutive cuts at The Players, he was glad just to make it to the weekend, shooting 71-71-73 prior to Sunday’s final round.
“I haven’t been in full control of my game, I was happy just to make the cut,” said Kuchar. “Practice-round day, I wasn’t excited about the state of my game. Just OK would be a good summary.”
That might aptly describe how Kuchar is doing since losing his Dad. There are moments both heartwarming and gut-wrenching, all of which can change from hour to hour.
“The best advice I’ve probably heard is as time goes by, you stop thinking as much about things you missed out on doing and remember the things you did get to do,” said Matt. “Five weeks is still early, but I continue to gain on remembering more the cool things we did get to do.”
Peter Kuchar will be remembered as a gregarious personality who enthusiastically supported his son’s golf career every step of the way. While he thoroughly enjoyed playing several sports well into his golden years, it couldn’t match the love he had for family.
As sad as it makes Matt Kuchar that he can no longer pick up the phone to call Dad, he has something far more precious: priceless good memories.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
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