Tag: Scott Gutschewski

Family affair: Three Gutschewskis grouped together at Korn Ferry Tour event

What a story for the Gutschewski family.

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Amy Gutschewski won’t have any difficult decisions to make as far as what group to watch during the first two rounds of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championship. That’s because the PGA Tour’s developmental circuit made it easy for her, grouping husband, Scott, and sons Luke and Trevor together for Thursday and Friday play. It marks the second time a father and multiple sons have played in the same Tour-sanctioned event, following in the footsteps only of the Nicklauses.

Scott, or “Gootch” as he is affectionately called, is a 47-year-old journeyman pro who once went 10 years – 3,626 days to be exact – between starts as a PGA Tour member. He should be in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Tour’s Wyndham Championship, but he’s far enough down the alternate list that he decided to commit to his first Korn Ferry Tour event of the year in his home state of Nebraska. Scott has made just four of 16 cuts this season in the big leagues and not even a victory at the Wyndham would have earned him a place in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin next week.

Luke, a rising junior at Iowa State, won the Nebraska Junior Amateur in 2020 and was one of six first-round co-leaders and one of four co-medalists at the 122nd U.S. Amateur Championship in 2022 at Ridgewood Golf Club. His younger brother, Trevor, just won the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills last month. The brothers are making their debuts in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, alongside their pops in the 9:57 a.m. group off No. 10.

Through the years, Luke has caddied for Scott on occasion, including several years ago at a Korn Ferry event in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Scott and Amy’s daughter, Isabelle, attends the University of Nebraska and is part of the PGA Golf Management program. As for their youngest, Isaiah? He’s only eight but has inherited the family’s passion for golf. Two years ago, Amy posted on Twitter after Isaiah made a birdie on the first hole of his first tournament: “And just like that, another one is hooked,” she wrote.

This family affair in the game just keeps getting better and it doesn’t get much better for Scott, a three-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, than a chance to play in a professional event alongside his boys.

“I thought there was a chance at some point Luke and I may kind of cross paths depending on how long I could still walk and everything,” Scott told Omaha’s CBS affiliate KMTV, “but yeah, Trevor was definitely a huge surprise [to play alongside at a Tour event].”

PGA Tour rookies achieve their dreams, but can they keep their dream jobs?

Unlike some pro sports, there are no guaranteed contracts in professional golf.

NAPA, Calif. – Callum Tarren wondered when he might be getting his PGA Tour card.

The 30-year-old England native seemingly had worked a lifetime to gain admission to the big leagues. He finished tied for fourth at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship three weeks ago, a result that locked up one of the 25 PGA Tour cards given out in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with one event still remaining. But he skipped the ceremony a week later to fly home and spend time with his first child, Sofia, born two weeks earlier.

Tarren’s friend, David Skinns, a 39-year-old journeyman pro from England who spent time during golf’s pandemic shutdown as both a bartender and DoorDash driver to make ends meet before earning his card too, made sure Tarren received the grand symbol of Tour membership at the Fortinet Championship, the first of 48 tournaments that make up the 2021-22 PGA Tour season. Skinns marked his golf ball on the putting green with Tarren’s card during a practice round at Silverado Resort & Spa’s North Course.

Tarren and Skinns aren’t the only ones who have waited a long time to achieve their dream of playing on the PGA Tour. Justin Lower, 38, attended Q-School six times, missed earning his card by a single shot in 2018, and needed to pitch to a foot from 30 yards to save par at the final hole at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Indiana to secure the last card. Lower still wasn’t sure if he’d done enough until his fellow pros and caddies showered him with beer and champagne. When he finally grabbed hold of his coveted PGA Tour card, Lower said, “It’s heavier than I thought it would be.”

There are 27 rookies in this season’s class on the PGA Tour, the most since 2011 when 35 earned cards, and 26 of them are in the field this week (all but Matthias Schwab). Max McGreevy and Jared Wolfe are making their Tour debuts.

Some, like Aaron Rai, a 26-year-old Englishman who once holed a record 207 straight 10-foot putts at age 15, needed just three starts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to graduate while others such as Scott Gutschewski, 44, is returning to the big leagues full time for the first time since 2011. He made just two PGA Tour starts in the past 10 years. How did he celebrate his success? He went to Denny’s.

“It ain’t Applebees, but still pretty fancy,” he tweeted.

Hayden Buckley was the last man to get into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic in February and then birdied the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to jumpstart earning his Tour playing privileges. Membership has its privileges. It also means having to play against the likes of World No. 1 Jon Rahm and PGA Championship winner Phil Mickelson, who headline the field this week in Napa.

But there are no guaranteed contracts in professional golf. Stephan Jaeger is back for his third tour of duty. He was the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year, winning his sixth career title on the circuit, tied for second most all time, but he’s yet to record a top-10 finish in 62 starts on the PGA Tour. Still, he remains undeterred.

“I’ve done a lot over the last year and that’s given me a lot of confidence that like, ‘Hey, I can do this out here,’ ” he said.

Lower shares Jaeger’s never-give-up attitude. The 11-year-pro shed tears of joy when he finally secured the job he’d always dreamed of. This week marks the arrival at his destination, PGA Tour member, but the real work had just begun.

“It means everything,” he said, “and I don’t think this is it. I don’t think my journey is over at all. I think it’s just getting started.”