Matt Kuchar and Son Win PNC Championship in Emotional and Record Fashion

Team Kuchar set the tournament record by five strokes after the loss of Matt’s father earlier this year.
Cameron Kuchar and Matt Kuchar blitzed the field at the PNC Championship.
Cameron Kuchar and Matt Kuchar blitzed the field at the PNC Championship. / Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Matt Kuchar has nine PGA Tour wins. But, despite not being an official victory, his triumph at the PNC Championship will be as memorable as any of them.

Kuchar, 47, and his son, Cameron Kuchar, 18, won the event formerly known as the Father/Son Challenge by seven strokes over Team Love and Team Daly, finishing at 33 under par at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. 

MORE: Final results, payouts from PNC Championship

And it was an emotional finish. Matt knocked his approach on the par-5 18th to a few feet before tearing up and hugging Cameron, who is set to attend TCU next year and play on the golf team. Cameron then sank the eagle putt. 

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They set the tournament record by five strokes and their final-round 18-under 54 is the lowest round in the event’s history. Their only pars came on the 8th and 12th holes and they didn’t card a bogey all weekend. 

As they closed in on the win, Matt couldn’t help but think about his father, who died earlier this year and had played the PNC with him before.

“I definitely got very emotional there,” Matt told NBC during the trophy ceremony. “Coming in thinking about this moment and how much it would mean to Dad if he was here.

“I know Pop’s giving big fist pumps up in the sky … we get to bring people together and I think when you can be with family, you can make special memories.” 

Entering the final round, Team Daly of John Daly and his son, John III, trailed the Kuchars by two strokes. Though they wouldn’t catch the lead on Sunday, an eagle on the last jumped them to T2. Team Love now has the most runner-up finishes in the history of the PNC. 

The Kuchars weren’t the only team to display emotion and wizardry with their shots. Lee Trevino, 86, playing with his son, Daniel, holed out for eagle on the par-4 13th. He has played every PNC since its inception in 1995, but has never won. 

That doesn’t diminish his love for the event, though. 

“The reason I do this and the reason that I promote it and I play it like I do now is because the Lord, for some reason, gave me a tremendous amount of talent, and I’m going to meet him pretty soon and I damn sure don’t want him to be disappointed, because you know why? If he’s disappointed, I’m probably going to have to caddie for [Arnold Palmer],” Trevino told Golf Channel afterward with a laugh. “He’s going to have to put me on Arnie’s bag, yeah.”

But even though the PNC is a hit-and-giggle, everyone on the course is a competitor. For example, after the first round, Cameron was asked what his goal was for the week. 

“Go out, birdie the first and keep it going,” he said. 

And that’s exactly what they did en route to capturing an emotional victory. 

“I know Cam has had his eye on these Willie Park belts [awarded to the champions] for many years,” Matt said, “and now to do this, to know that Dad’s looking down on us, it chokes me up for sure.”

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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.