Jean and Dick Sucher - A Golfing Family

Jean Sucher is the 2009 Ozaukee CC Women's Champion, an event which she has won seven times. When she and her husband Dick met at a golf show in 1989, Jean was a 100 shooter and Dick had already been in the WSGA Hall of Fame since 1986. Jean was in marketing (she was responsible for the golf show) and Dick was in the middle of a successful career at Baird Investments. The relationship flourished and they were married on August 24 of 1990.

Dick Sucher wasn't necessarily a golf natural. His first year on the Whitefish Bay HS golf team Sucher couldn't break 130 for 18 holes which was 10 strokes more than the next best finisher. "It really sort of disturbed me", said Sucher. He kept at it and played in three matches as a sophomore. He finished second in the conference as a junior and won the conference championship as a senior. He went to Rollins College in Florida after turning down scholarships to Dartmouth and Wisconsin; eventually ending up at Northwestern. Dick captained the Northwestern golf team and competed against a young Jack Nicklaus who was playing at Ohio State.

By this time Sucher's golf fortunes were soaring and while still in college he took low amateur honors at the 1957 and 1958 Miller High Life Open which was the precursor to the GMO and US Bank Championship.

Jean , too, has been playing at a high level shooting a 71 and a 72 at their club in California, the Tradition, where they play and socialize with the just 80 year-old Arnold Palmer. Palmer calls Dick Sucher "a good friend" and given the opportunity to assess Sucher's game said, "I think he's a very good putter."

Looking through the scrapbook in the Suchers' comfortable Mequon condominium is like a trip through Wisconsin golf history for the last 50 years. Relationships with the most recognizable golf names in Wisconsin golf history emerge in article after article; Bobby Brue, Gene Haas, Steve Stricker, J.P. Hayes, Skip Kendall and Andy North to mention a few.

Last summer I had the good fortune and privilege to play with Bob Brue, Gene Haas and Dick Sucher at Ozaukee CC. Jean Sucher, ever gracious, set up the foursome on a sparkling summer day and the experience was memorable to say the least. The jibes and gentle gamesmanship mixed with some pretty remarkable golf from these Hall of Fame men made it a day to remember. In aggregate, the events that these men have competed in and organized have figured largely in Wisconsin golf history. I wish that each of you who truly cares about the finest traditions in Wisconsin golf could have been flies on the wall. It was the best!

Sidebar: The Sucher Legacy

2 State Amateur Championships
2 Mid-Amateur Championships (The Governor's Cup)
3 Senior Amateur Championships
3 State Best Ball Championships (2 with Alex Antonio, 1 Bruce Boegel
2 State Senior Best Ball Championships w/ Bruce Boegel
Capital Times Open
2 Cherryland Open Championships (Overall Champion)
Runner Up; State Open Championship (Tom Veech winner)
4 Milwaukee District Match Play Championships
Runner-Up U.S. Pro/Amateur with Bob Brue
Horace Havermeyer Invitational; Long Island
Champion; Ed Tutwiler Senior Tournament; Reynolds Plantation
Runner-up; U.S. Senior Challenge; Memphis Tennessee
Low Amateur; U.S. Senior Open @ Medinah
Quarter Finalist; U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur
Qualifier: 10 U.S. Amateurs, 2 U.S. Mid-Amateurs (Medalist in 1983 at Cherry Hills)
4 U.S. Senior Opens (made cut 3 of 4 times)
4 U.S. Senior Amateurs