ORLANDO, Fla. – Golf entered the Kuchar family in a serious way when Meg decided one Christmas to upgrade her membership at Sweetwater Golf and Country Club near Orlando. Her husband Peter, an accomplished tennis player, was a little taken aback, wondering how much this gift was going to cost.
What followed, of course, was a gift that endured for decades, as his son Matt followed him onto the golf course and the couple’s already close relationship took on a whole new dimension.
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As Matt, 47, stood on the podium with his own son Cameron, 18, at the PNC Championship on Sunday, their championship belts thrown over their shoulders, Peter was the one at the top of the list. Peter died suddenly in February while on vacation with his wife of 50 years off the coast of St. Barthélemy.
Cameron and Matt Kuchar celebrate after teaming up to win the 2025 PNC Championship.
This was Matt’s first PNC without his father, who was both partner and caddy in this family event. Cameron, 18, and his father once got off to a good start at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, but couldn’t find a way to finish.
It ended Sunday, when the two blew out the field with a final round score of 54, setting a new final round score record of 33 under, five shots better than the mark set by 2025 champions Berhard Langer and his son Jason last year as well as Tiger and Charlie Woods.
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What would his father have said?
“I think people have told me that over time you stop thinking about the things you miss and you start thinking about the things you’re grateful for and the good times you had,” Kuchar said, adding, “There would have definitely been some big gut punches and definitely a lot of pride.”
Matt Kuchar and his father Peter discuss a putt on the 10th green during the third round of the 1998 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club.
The Kuchars set the new standard for 18-hole, 36-hole and margin of victory at this event, finishing seven strokes ahead of Davis Love III and his son Dru as well as John Daly and Little John.
“It’s supposed to be a fun family event,” Love said, “but you better birdie every hole or you’re going to lose.”
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The Kuchars had two eagles and 14 birdies on the day and just five pars for the entire tournament.
“I think I only made about three putts,” Matt said of a round dominated by a son who grew up at the event.
“I didn’t keep track as much today as yesterday, but I probably made five or six solo birdies,” Cameron said. “Every once in a while I’d let him know, okay, I did that one myself. But he also did a few solos, and he’d come right back and say, ‘That’s all I did there.’ »
Matt said Cameron, who will be a freshman at TCU in the fall, played some of the best golf he’s ever seen played over the weekend, exhilarating stuff with the network television cameras rolling.
Matt Kuchar and his son Cameron celebrate their victory on the 18th at the PNC Championship.
In 2025, the high school senior finished in the AJGA top 20 five times and was a finalist at Western Junior over the summer. This was Cameron’s fourth time playing with his father at the event. Younger brother Carson, a tennis player, also competed, but this time he served as a caddy.
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As for the long-awaited victory belt, Kuchar said he has the perfect “terrible” coat from the Hilton Head Tour stop that he pulls out every Christmas.
The coat will go perfectly with the red belt.
“I don’t know if you believe in karma, if you believe in destiny, whatever you believe in, there’s something magical that exists. I believe in God, that Dad is above and looking down, and that – what happened on the 18th, I was having a hard time getting up and shooting. For me, hitting him in the foot, makes me think there’s something more there,” Kuchar said before crying.
“Miss… Miss Pops.”
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Most of his trophies, he said, come with family photos, and it’s fun to look back on how his children grew up during his career. He held back tears again as he thought about how a special face would be missing from this week’s family photo.
Matt Kuchar and his son Cameron celebrate the PNC victory with family.
When asked what was important for his father to pass on to his own boys, Matt said the hard work was worth it. His father’s parents, he noted, were window cleaners who immigrated from Ukraine during the Bolshevik Revolution.
They could never understand why he took a week off from the Tour, he said with a smile, because it left them nothing to watch.
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This week at PNC, for generations of Kuchars, was a celebration for the celestials.
“It was surreal and magical, and I knew my husband was with them every step of the way,” Meg said through tears behind 18.th Green.
“I think it was destined.”
This article was originally published on Golfweek: PNC Championship Matt Kuchar and son Cameron win 2025 title
