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It has brought them glittering trophies and million-dollar deals, shattered marriages and broken bodies. Even as the game inflicted so much pain it remained the common bond among them.
"The thing about my family is that no matter how bad it's going for one or two of us, someone, somewhere, is usually doing something pretty special," says Trip, the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion. "I think that's what keeps all of us going — we take turns inspiring each other."
Trip has been the family star of late, with a run of victories last year that culminated in his triumph at the Mid-Am, punching his ticket back to Augusta. The Masters will be the last stop on a journey that began at the finals of the 1994 U.S. Amateur, when Kuehne (pronounced "KEY-nee") had Tiger Woods five down with 12 holes to play only to watch it all slip away, a comeback that signaled the start of Woods's considerable legend.
Two careers changed forever that day at TPC Sawgrass. Kuehne was everybody's All-American when he played at Oklahoma State, but that heartbreaking loss helped convince him that golf was too fleeting to become his life's work.
"It was devastating," Trip's father Ernie Kuehne once said. "He learned that you can play your best and it might not be good enough. It took a lot of the love of playing golf out of him."
With an MBA in his pocket Kuehne spurned the bright lights and easy money of the PGA Tour to remain a well-rounded amateur with a happy home life and a thriving career in finance. But when Kelli won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1995 and '96, and Hank snagged the U.S. Amateur in 1998, Trip became driven to win a USGA title of his own and complete the family trophy case.
All these years later he's finally done it, and now Kuehne is ready to walk away from the game. The Masters will be his farewell to big-time golf, as he has vowed to give up competition in favor of focusing on the money-management firm he started in 2005, and on his wife, Dusti, and 8-year-old son, Will. In a culture that deifies professional athletes, Kuehne made the uncommon choice to follow his heart and not give in to the pressure of chasing someone else's dream.
It is poetic that his farewell will come at the Masters, a tournament that doubles as a monument to Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur golfer of all time and a man who, like Kuehne, stubbornly did it his own way.
To understand the Kuehne kids, you must first understand Ernie Kuehne.
The family patriarch was born in Otto, Tex., a no-stoplight, no-hope hamlet stuck in the black-soil country of the Lone Star state. Half a century ago, Otto had a population of about 100. Education was Ernie's way out of Otto, and he went on to successfully practice law while making a fortune on the side, at various points owning a gold and silver trading firm, two banks, and an oil and gas company, and has held interests in a horse-racing syndicate.
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