How the Gutschewski family is motivating Scott to re-earn TOUR status

When Scott Gutschewski won the LECOM Suncoast Classic in a playoff in April, it was his third Korn Ferry Tour title – and first since 2008. The tears came, of course, as he said he was trying to be the type of player he teaches his kids to be.

National Golf Day was May 10, and that was Gutschewski’s daughter’s last day of high school. Isabelle is off to the University of Nebraska next year to be part of the PGA Golf Management program. His son, Luke, is a sophomore at Iowa State and part of the golf team. Golf is also a big part of the lives of his two other sons, Trevor and Isaiah, and with dad trending towards earning a PGA TOUR card again at age 46, the next generation of Gutschewski’s is in the golfing mix too.

What golf has meant to Gutschewski’s family is hard to put into words, Scott says. But it’s the part of life that’s brought them so much joy, too.

Gutschewski, who turned pro in 1999 and has played 137 events on the PGA TOUR in his career, played all sports growing up, but even after baseball or soccer, his parents and two sisters would play nine holes at a local par-3 course. Golf was fun. When he had his own kids, that became the emphasis for them, too.

Isabelle, he says, took six years off from the game but when she got to high school, she wanted to play again. She’s down to about a four handicap, Gutschewski says, and could go to college to play golf, but she wanted to be in the management side.

“We never pressured her into playing. We always tried to keep it fun,” says Gutschewski. “It makes me think that my wife and I have kept it full circle because now it’s something they can enjoy.”

Luke Gutschewski, meanwhile, was a star junior. He won the Nebraska Junior Amateur in 2020 and tied for seventh at the 2020 Nebraska Open. He was also a co-medallist for the U.S. Amateur last year. He’s having a solid enough collegiate career, Scott Gutschewski says, and there’s a chance that father and son could, maybe, tee it up on the PGA TOUR together one day.

“I would be totally distracted,” admits Scott Gutschewski with a laugh. “I would get exhausted trying to get us in different waves so I could watch and just totally sabotage my own tournament. I think any dad that has a son that plays at a high level would think (playing together on TOUR) would be a really cool thing.

“I’ll do everything I can to help him get opportunities.”

Seeing his son not just play golf but compete at a high level has been the inspirational kick-in-the-pants Gutschewski’s needed as he looks to get back to the PGA TOUR. More than anything, he says of his current motivation, is that he just wants to keep beating his kids.

“Beating (Luke) and learning from him and helping him find his way… I watch a lot of college golf now and these college golfers are really, really good,” says Gutschewski. “And there’s a lot of them. So, I’m watching them and trying to stay ahead of them.”

Gutschewski’s victory on the Korn Ferry Tour earlier this season was “shocking,” he admits. It’s not that he didn’t think he could win, but the way he won – rolling in a 40-foot birdie from off the green in a playoff against Logan McAllister, who is just three years older than Luke – came out of nowhere.

“Obviously everyone thinks they can win, and everyone thinks they can win multiple times,” says Gutschewski. “But thinking you can do it and actually doing it are two different things.”

Still, no one can take away from the fact that he did actually do it.

A week after his win at the LECOM Suncoast Classic, he finished tied for fifth at the 54-hole HomeTown Lenders Championship. During a Korn Ferry Tour week off, he was also the medalist at his U.S. Open Local Qualifier. “The goal was to advance, and I advanced, so there you have it,” he says with a laugh.

Gutschewski is fifth on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List and is trending towards re-earning PGA TOUR status once again – despite being just three years away from PGA TOUR Champions eligibility. He’s still driving it far enough, averaging just under 300 yards per pop so far this season, while hitting almost 75 percent of both his fairways and his greens. His putting has been the difference maker this year, Gutschewski explains. He’s 36th in Putting Average, a stat he was 149th in on the PGA TOUR last season through 23 tournaments.

“When you talk about guys at our level, it’s not much. It’s a putt or two a week – even a day,” Gutschewski says.

But while Gutschewski is focused on his own golfing goals, the game has offered up so much for his family, too. And it’s not something he’ll ever stop being thankful for.

“My wife has been watching me play golf since we were in high school. We were high school sweethearts and she’s been going to golf tournaments for 30 years,” says Gutschewski. “It’s a family thing for us.”