One standard bearer is going to have at least an extra pound of letters to carry for two days.
The 9:57 a.m. group off No. 10 for Thursday’s opening round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Pinnacle Bank Championship will feature not one, not two, but three Gutschewskis – dad, Scott, who is making his first KFT start of the year after making just four of 16 cuts on the PGA Tour; and Scott’s two oldest boys, Luke, who is a rising junior at Iowa State, and Trevor, who is verbally committed to Florida and recently won the U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills.
For the two Gutschewski boys, it will be their PGA Tour debuts – and in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Originally, Scott Gutschewski was supposed to play this week’s Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s regular-season finale. He is No. 215 in FedExCup points, so even a win would not have moved him into the top 70 to earn a playoff berth. But Gutschewski didn’t get into the field anyway, and instead of waiting around on the alternate list, he entered the KFT event – he is a three-time winner on the developmental circuit – and he’ll look to gain some momentum going into the PGA Tour’s fall series, where he’ll have to move into the top 125 in eight events to keep his card.
“I thought there was a chance at some point Luke and I may kind of cross paths depending on how long I could still walk and everything, but yeah, Trevor was definitely a huge surprise [to be able to play a Tour event with],” Scott Gutschewski told Omaha’s CBS affiliate, KMTV.
After missing the 3M Open cut last month, Scott raced to Detroit to watch Trevor take down Tyler Watts in the championship match of his USGA championship debut. Now, he was watching Trevor attempt trick shots involving M&M’s on the driving range Tuesday at The Club at Indian Creek.
Luke has some USGA hardware as well. He was the co-medalist at the 2022 U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood.
They both have a great role model.
“More than anything,” Luke said of his dad, “I think he’s taught how to be a professional and how we carry ourselves, handle our practice, handle dealing with people.”