Peter Kuchar, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident and the father of 2012 Players Champion Matt Kuchar, passed away at the age of 73 on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack on a trip to St. Bart’s to celebrate his wife Meg’s birthday.
Golfweek first reported the story. Matt Kuchar, a nine-time PGA Tour winner and a resident of Jupiter, confirmed his father’s death in a text to Golfweek and withdrew from the field of this week’s WM Phoenix Open.
Matt Kuchar later issued a statement to Golf Channel:
“My Pop was a huge fan of sport and passed on his love of competition to me,” he said in a statement. “He was a wonderful person — an incredible grandfather, a loving husband and best friend to my mother, and the best father I could have ever hoped for. An avid pickleball player and outdoorsman, Pop was a man of great character and a character in his own right.
“He is the person that introduced me to the game of golf, a tie that will always remain between us. Those memories, and so many more, will be with me and our family forever. He will be missed more than words can express. We appreciate the support and privacy while we grieve as a family.”
Kuchar’s sister Rebecca posted on Facebook that her parents were on a “bucket list trip, one my dad had spent months planning.”
“From the photos they shared it was clear they were having the times of their lives,” she posted. “Even after 51 years of marriage they were still head over heels in love — best friends, soulmates, inseperable. It It ended with a swim together in [St. Bart’s]. His heart gave out.”
Rebecca Kuchar also posted that a rescue team tried for an hour to resuscitate her father.
Meg Kuchar later posted on Facebook: “I am shocked and devastated but trust God has welcomed Peter into a Paradise that makes this one we were so enjoying pale in comparison and look forward to our reunion in Heaven when my time on earth is done RIP, my love.”
Peter Kuchar was a nationally ranked tennis player
Peter Kuchar was a standout tennis player at Stetson University, a sport that he passed on to his son, who won mixed doubles tournaments with his wife Sybi when the two lived in Ponte Vedra. Peter Kuchar attained a national ranking in doubles.
But Matt Kuchar gravitated towards golf while growing up at the Heathrow Country Club near Orlando, was an All-American at Georgia Tech and won the 1997 U.S. Amateur at Cog Hill, with his father caddying.
It was in 1998 that the golf world realized how talented Matt Kuchar was, and his father was there every step of the way in some cases — literally.
Peter Kuchar caddied for his son at the 1998 Masters and 1998 U.S. Open, two perks Matt Kuchar received for winning the Amateur. With his father enthusiastically cheering for every good shot and made putt, Kuchar was the low amateur in each event, tying for 21st at the Masters and for 14th at the Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, after finishing the first three rounds among the top 10.
Peter Kuchar was content to be a proud spectator for the rest of his son’s career but the two played together in the PNC Father-Son Championship and this year Peter Kuchar caddie for his grandson Cameron in the tournament.
Peter Kuchar was involved in First Coast charity
Peter Kuchar and his wife were long-time First Coast residents and involved in the golf and tennis community, and charitable endeavors.
Peter Kuchar was chairman of a charity tournament for the Ronald McDonald House for more than a decade, played tennis and pickleball and played with the “Munchkins,” a group of retired PGA Tour executives and players who had a three-times-a-week game at the TPC Sawgrass.
Peter Kuchar began shooting his age at 70.
Friends remember Peter Kuchar as a ‘fun guy’
“Peter was a very jovial guy on and off the golf course,” said Duke Butler III, who played numerous rounds with Kuchar and was on the board for his charity tournament. “He was a great putter and he enjoyed sinking them to beat you. Great hand-eye coordination. He was a fun guy to be around, 100 percent of the time when he was awake. Peter never got cheated on living life.”
Past PGA Tour winner Bob Dickson, another member of the Munchkins, said the tragedy was doubled by coming on a trip for his wife’s birthday.
“I feel so incredibly sad for Meg and Matt,” Dickson said. “Peter was a great guy to play golf with or just sit and talk. A heck of a person.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Matt Kuchar’s father Peter, a Ponte Vedra resident dies on vacation trip
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