Golf has produced many historic amateur careers. From Bobby Jones to Tiger Woods to Jay Sigel, amateur golf has many legends.
But no family has produced a resume like the Kuehne family’s over the last 30 years.
Kelli, Trip and Hank won six USGA national titles. Their mother, Pam, was the driving force behind amateur golf’s first family, while their father, Ernie, instilled the competitive nature in the kids that allowed them to rack up USGA titles. Hank won the 1998 U.S. Amateur at Oak Hill. Trip lost to Tiger Woods in the 1994 U.S. Amateur title match at TPC Sawgrass but won the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Bandon Dunes and played on three Walker Cup teams.
But Kelli was the most accomplished player of the legendary golf family. She won the U.S. Girls’ Junior in 1994 and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1995, becoming the first woman to do that since JoAnne Carter. She then repeated as U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and won the British Ladies Amateur before turning pro at 19.
No family has matched what the Kuehne family has accomplished in amateur golf. On the latest episode of GOLF’s Subpar Podcast, Trip Kuehne discussed his family’s historic amateur golf legacy.
“It was amazing,” Trip Kuehne told co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “Some of the stuff that my sister did is just sick. She never lost a high school tournament playing for Highland Park. She played like 32 tournaments, won 32 tournaments. Then, I know Tiger’s was three U.S. Juniors and three U.S. Amateurs, and again, I’m biased, but Tiger had some losses in between. So my sister won the Junior, the U.S. Ladies Amateur, the Ladies British Amateur and the Ladies Amateur all in a row and never lost. It was pretty impressive. She was really good. Unfortunately, the game changed, and her diabetes took a toll. She was the ultimate grinder.
“Being there with Hank in 1998 at Oak Hill when he won, it inspired me to kind of keep on. I think one of the things that allowed my brother and sister and I to be so good is that somebody was always having some success. I was pretty good young, had some success, won some state high school [titles]. That led to Hank playing pretty well. Somebody was always winning, and I think that’s one of the things that Dad taught: you’ve got to learn how to win. He thought that if he took good athletes and gave them good instruction and taught them how to compete and win then you could create pretty good golfers.”
To hear more from Trip Kuehne, check out the entire episode on YouTube.
