Trip Kuehne was rolling putts on the practice green before his second round. He heard a familiar voice behind him after he dropped a 10-footer.
“Yeah, Dad,” said 3-year-old Will Kuehne, whose father didn’t know he was there.
It was a great way to start the day–and a great day to start in such a way. Trip, the eldest of Dallas’ Kuehne golfing conglomerate, went on to shoot 67 and survive the 36-hole cut at a U.S. Open.
Kuehne’s in the hunt for low amateur but says the one thing he will remember most about the week are those unexpected words of delight from his son.
“Hopefully he’ll be able to remember this,” said Kuehne, 30. “I don’t know how many of these rodeos I have in me.”
Will and his mother, Dusti, are the reason he puts in 40-hour weeks as an equity salesman rather than follow his younger siblings, former U.S. Amateur champions Henry and Kelli, into pro golf.
“It might be different if I didn’t have a 3-year-old son and a wife at home, ” said Kuehne, who is tied for 40th at 1-over 141. “I have an obligation to those guys.”
Kuehne makes a very nice living from his job with Legg Mason. His golfing ability and his family name allow him to develop relationships with titans like Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric. It’s natural to wonder how far he could go as a pro.
“It’s easy if you’re on the PGA Tour,” Kuehne said. “Getting there is the hard part.”
There’s little doubt Trip has the potential to win on the PGA Tour. He has the same skills as his siblings and a temperament that perfectly suits the game. He had a 5-up lead in the final of the 1994 U.S. Amateur before Tiger Woods’ greatest escape.
Four years later, he used that experience to help Henry win the Amateur. Recently, Trip shot a 62 in Open qualifying.
But Kuehne chooses to be like a modern-day Bobby Jones. He not only eschews the mini-tours and global jungle of professional golf but won’t even take advantage of liberalized rules that let amateurs go for a test drive at PGA Tour qualifying school without forfeiting amateur status.
“I don’t believe in reinstated amateurs,” Kuehne said. “I don’t agree with the USGA. I’m a little more of a purist. I have a problem with trying tour school [and remaining an amateur if you fail]. To me, that would be going back on your word.”
Kuehne is driven by a strange regret–he played poorly in the 1995 Walker Cup, contributing to a United States loss. It’s doubtful that haunts many of his teammates, who included Woods, Chris Riley and Notah Begay III.
But when Kuehne’s normal working day ends at 4 p.m., he heads to the practice range for a two-hour ritual that actually includes–gasp–shagging his own balls. He says he hasn’t been preparing for the Open as much as the upcoming U.S. Amateur, where he hopes he’ll do well enough to get on the Walker Cup team.
The last ball he hits every day bears the logo of Oakmont, the great old beast of a course in Pittsburgh. It’s the site of this year’s Amateur.
On Father’s Day weekend, this might be the best guy of all to root for.
Whispers
So much for picking long shots. Tom Gillis, the pick here Thursday, shot a second-round 76 and was among those slamming trunks. The worst about-face was by Jay Don Blake, who followed his 66 with a 77, barely making the cut. . . . Ten amateurs made the field, but only Trip Kuehne (1 over) and Ricky Barnes (2 over) survived the cut. . . . Kuehne has five wedges in his bag–a pitching wedge, a 52-degree sand wedge, a 56-degree sand wedge and two 60-degree sand wedges. Why two with the same loft? “I’m Harry Houdini chipping with my TaylorMade 60-degree, but I blade it out of bunkers,” he said. “So I went to my trusty Cleveland sand wedge.” . . . Tom Lehman isn’t here because he decided not even to try to qualify. He apparently did not feel his game was ready for the U.S. Open. Wonder if he would take a mulligan on that decision given the scoring at Olympia Fields?
In the end, it won’t be a cake walk
Given Olympia Fields’ closing holes, low scores hardly preclude a nerve-wracking finish, with someone having to sweat out three pars in a row to win the Open. Consider that the 17 players at 2 under par or better have played the three closing holes in a combined 1 over.
The two co-leaders, Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, have gone 3 over on the stretch from 16 to the clubhouse. Jonathan Byrd, Stephen Leaney and Fredrik Jacobson have been the fastest finishers among the front-runners, playing the last three in a combined 2 under.
It’s a kinder, gentler U.S. Open
As long as there has been a Players Championship, the PGA has been hyping it as the fifth major. But with the damage being done to Olympia Fields, it might move straight to No. 4.
Late Friday afternoon, three obscure pros in the final group of the day (Doug LaBelle II, Bill Lunde and Steve Gotsche), all on the way to missing the cut, stood on a par-4 green in the soft shadows. There wasn’t a sweat-stained shirt among them. Cooled by gentle breezes, they examined their birdie putts, the longest of which was 12 feet.
Could this really be the U.S. Open? This unprecedented assault on par comes despite the USGA adding length while reducing the par from 72 to 70 by changing two par-5s into par-4s. So look at it this way–co-leaders Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk really could be 11 under, not 7.
Soft fairways are holding drives and the rough is far from Open difficulty. The greens don’t have their traditional fire.
Nick Price says blame the weather, not the course.
“If you look at the normal weather Chicago has in June, you’d probably have nice, bright blue sunshine skies, the normal southwest wind, which is hot and would have dried these greens out,” Price said. “Probably 2 under par would be leading right now.”
Maybe, but the guess here is that the next time there’s an Open at Olympia Fields, Johnny Miller has a chance to be on the leaderboard, not in the broadcast booth.
Partnered with Sammy–for life
Fresh off the red-eye from Maui, Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly was welcomed to Chicago on Wednesday by a story in the Tribune’s Tempo section that described him as “vastly overrated.” He drew a large crowd to Anderson’s in Naperville for a signing of his new book “Who’s Your Caddy?” but couldn’t shake references to the 2002 column in which he offered to facilitate steroid testing for Sammy Sosa.
Reporter Brad Engel of the Naperville Sun sprang a test of his own on Reilly, presenting him with some questions on spelling, grammar and usage. Reilly good-naturedly took the quiz and awaits his score.
What’s his next column idea?
“I’m going to ask Sammy to take a lie-detector test,” Reilly said.
He was joking. But it’s not a bad idea. Imagine the ratings WGN could pull for that one.
Singhing along
Many PGA Tour players disagree with Vijay Singh’s highly publicized comments about Annika Sorenstam in the buildup for the Colonial but think he has been portrayed unfairly in the media. Singh gave an honest answer to a question from Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press, and many in the media vilified him. No wonder athletes are so guarded in their comments.
“The reaction was stupid,” said Rocco Mediate, a neighbor of Singh’s who witnessed his record-tying 63 as a playing partner. “What he said was his opinion. That’s what they asked him for. Then he got absolutely barbecued for it. That’s unfair. He doesn’t dislike Annika. He just didn’t think she should play in a tournament.”
Mediate has a different view of Singh.
“He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, period,” he said. “He just has his beliefs. I have mine; he has his.”
Mediate knows Singh has the game to quiet his critics.
“I don’t think they’ll say anything when he holds that trophy up on Sunday,” he said.
