Luke Guthrie is in his third season on the PGA Tour following a stellar career at the University of Illinois. Guthrie is fighting for his PGA Tour livelihood as he currently stands 146th on the FedEx Cup points list and only the top 125 at regular season’s end in August are guaranteed to retain their Tour cards. The 25-year-old Quincy, Illinois native is accompanied on his travels by his older brother Zach, a former college golfer and assistant golf coach at Illinois. Zach serves as Luke’s full-time caddie on Tour, a partnership that has allowed the siblings to form a close bond. Luke and Zach have agreed to share their experiences on the road as the sibling team attempts to remain – and hopefully thrive — on the PGA Tour.
Luke Guthrie: More often than not we travel together, but Zach left after I missed the cut at the Zurich Classic (in New Orleans) and I stayed until last Monday, when things got a little hectic. I went to the airport around 3 p.m. and it was pitch-black inside when I arrived because of a power outage caused by severe weather.
I waited in line for three hours, and 30 minutes before my flight was to depart, they announced all flights were cancelled for the rest of the evening due to the conditions. A scramble to the rental car center ensued and I was able to grab a ride with three other guys to Jacksonville. We left around 6 p.m. and got there about 4 in the morning. Crazy!
I was in Jacksonville a couple of days last week prepping for this week’s Players Championship and then was with Zach up in Illinois with the parents. We all attended a Cardinals-Phillies game together and Zach and I headed back down to Jacksonville yesterday.
That family connection is a nice perk of having your brother on the bag. We both believe that being around the other all the time kind of reminds us to stay in touch more often with the people we are closest to.
It’s also nice to have that companion on Tour. We generally go about the area around the tournament site once per week. We’re both sports junkies, so we like to go to a lot of sporting events and check a lot of stadium visits off our lists.
It is interesting, though. I think Zach has seen a new side of me since we started together as player and caddy three years ago. I’m pretty mellow in general, but I can be intense on the course…
Zach Guthrie: I definitely agree with Luke on that point. When you’re in a place where you get to see someone when their emotions are most raw, you learn things that you hadn’t about that person despite knowing them your whole life. We’ve come to understand how to deal with that and we are definitely becoming a stronger team as we go.
I was also probably guilty of being too rosy in the past and didn’t get it when Luke would watch an approach shot go into the bunker and say “It’s right up against the lip.” But I understand now that thinking about the worst situation prepares you so that you’re ready for anything when you get up to the ball.
Luke: After a rough start this year, I’ve played well of late. I’ve missed my last two cuts by one shot, and I was pretty confident about making the weekend in New Orleans as I was T52 when I finished my second round.
I changed some things in 2015, as I had developed some bad swing habits over the past couple of years. I had worked with swing coaches informally during my career, but I felt I was putting band-aids on the swing, and honestly I didn’t know if I was doing everything 100 percent correct with my swing.
It was pretty evident after those first couple of years, I needed a full-time swing coach to improve. So after I missed the cut at Humana in January, I enlisted Todd Anderson as my swing coach. And it’s been great. My ball-striking has gotten so much better in the last three months and I have so much more confidence.
I’m 145th on the FedEx Cup points list, but I’m not too worried because I feel good about my game and we’re coming up toward tournament with the type of grass I grew up on. I just need to get my mental and short games up.
My card was pretty safe by this time the previous two years, but Zach actually thinks being so far down in points has me much more prepared for the summer tournaments.
I’m sick of saying I’m close because I’ve been saying it for the last couple of years, but I really do think the best golf of my life is in front of me here.
As told to special contributor Kevin Casey.
