When Trip Kuehne
won the US Mid-Amateur last fall at Bandon Dunes, I presumed it would be the jumping-off point that the career amateur needed to contend with greater frequency in US Ams and pro majors, to become the type of player that Hal Sutton and Matt Kuchar tried to be. Alas, it was the beginning of the end.

You see, Trip had a plan to be a better father, to keep his family stable and united, to walk away from the competitive amateur game at a pre-determined point. His brother was an alcohol addict by high school, his parents divorced a year ago, his sister did so much earlier. There hasn’t been a lot of relationship success in the Kuehne family and Trip was determined to avoid that.

Take a few moments and click the interview link above. If you believe half of what he says, then you have hope for a wealthy-beyond-words financial guys who used to play high-level competitive golf for fun. Now he’ll just be a dad, perhaps until the kids are a little older and he gets the urge to revisit Sunnehanna, Porter, Azalea and some of his old stomping grounds.

For now, the Walker Cup team has lost its veteran cornerstone. Shame.

EDS. NOTE: This just in…might not be done…

The question arises: How much longer can Kuehne keep all this up, balancing work, family and play? Provided he still feels competitive, he says he will continue to put the tee in the ground. “But if things happen with the business, who knows? I might be done at the end of this year.”

Hearing of her husband’s response, Dusti laughs. “Yeah, he might quit for a while, but he’s fooling himself. He needs golf.”

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