Grabbing Golf By the Horns
In retirement, CDGA member Toni Kukoc’s golf game has improved immensely
This article appeared in the July 2020 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
Toni Kukoc played 13 seasons in the NBA, the most memorable of which were the first six he spent with the Chicago Bulls (1993–99). Led by Michael Jordan, with Kukoc playing a key role, the Bulls won three straight championships from 1996–98. A native of Croatia, Kukoc has remained in the Chicago District after retiring following the 2005–06 season. And, as you will see from his ensuing comments, the CDGA member loves golf.
Who introduced you to the game?
Some friends of mine were playing and I saw MJ [Bulls teammate Michael Jordan] playing and I just wanted to pick it up. It was around 1997 or 1998 that I got a set of clubs from Benetton. We actually called them because at the time they were making clubs and Nitro golf balls. We asked them to make a set of lefties for me and they made two sets of lefties and they sent probably about 1,000 golf balls. I wasted all of that in like a year. The first time I went to play was at Bryn Mawr Country Club with [agent] Herb Rudoy. We started off the back nine. №10 is like a 220-yard par 3 and everything is over the water. So, I pretty much almost emptied the bag. I think I hit about eight or nine balls in the water, not even getting close. Then I decided to throw the ball on the side from about 80 or 90 yards and finish the hole from there. That was my start.
After I was done with basketball, I really got into golf. It was probably around 2003 or 2004. I liked the idea of picking up golf when I was done with basketball. A friend of mine got me introduced to Dr. Jim Suttie, who is a PGA teaching pro and he was at Cog Hill at the time. I went there and took about 10 lessons from him. It got me from shooting 120s to mid-80s. Just the idea of how to move a club, how to keep the body fairly still, like in some kind of box or phone booth. Just so I didn’t go all over the place anymore. From that point on, I never took any other lessons. I’m all about Golf Channel and golf magazines. If I like something from some particular swing, I will try to pick it up through my friends or MJ. Through Ben Herman who is a friend of mine, I was able to play with some good PGA players. Luke Donald, Keegan Bradley, John Brown, Adam Scott. You see stuff from them and ask them how they do certain things. And then you try to incorporate that into your game.
What do you like about golf?
Pretty much everything. I can literally stay hours. I’m talking three hours, especially on a short range — and try to get those 30-, 40-, 50-yard chips down, my bunker game. I don’t spend too much time with full shots on the range. I figure whatever works that day, either cut or draw, I’m going to play that. It’s the short game that I’m interested in improving. I do love absolutely everything about the game. I don’t want to get too deep into it like I’m going on some psychology thing, but it’s like life. As soon as you don’t pay attention to a certain thing, it bites you. It’s like, ‘Oh my putting is the easiest thing to do so I’m just going to focus on my long irons and my driver.’ And then you hit your driver 300 yards and you hit your iron on the green and then you three-putt for a bogey. You have to pay attention to every single thing. You can’t get mad. Then, everything falls apart. It’d be nice if you had a teammate or coach or referee to [complain] at. But there’s nobody there.
So you have these inner-head fights about staying calm. Each side of your brain is pulling a different way. But you know you have to stay calm and forget when you have a bad swing and just think about the next swing. You always have to be cool-headed and precise. It’s just a great, great game.
Did you play with teammates?
I played with Ray Allen when I was with Milwaukee. With the Bulls, I never played with MJ when we were teammates. Be cause he was good and he had his games and I was just starting. It wasn’t that exciting for him to play with me. Since I quit basketball, we have played a lot. We played once in the Bahamas. That was the first time he invited me to play in his charity match. Everybody was competitive there. You had hockey players, baseball players, athletes who knew how to play. Nobody really knew how good I was as a golfer. So when MJ took me for his twosome the last two days when celebrities played each other, people thought they were going to beat us easily. By the end of the second day, we had a nine-shot lead going into the back nine. I’m trying to tell MJ to slow it down so someone actually gets close to us so it looked like a decent tournament and we didn’t just kill everybody. In typical MJ fashion, he said, ‘Yeah, I couldn’t care less. I can win my tournament every once in a while.’ So we did win that one fairly easily. This was April 23, 2011.
What about playing with Fred Couples when the Encompass Championship was held at North Shore Country Club?
It was so cool to be among these people — I’ll call them the old guys, but I’m one of the old guys because I’m 52 — who I was watching when I first started following golf. They were winning majors. Now you actually have a chance to talk to them about stuff. I would introduce myself. And they would all look at me, ‘Yeah, like we don’t know who you are.’ That was so fun. Freddie — if I can call him Freddie; Mr. Fred Couples — is just as cool as everyone says. He phoned me before the tournament and said he was looking forward to us playing together. We actually won that. He ended up second. Craig Stadler made a crazy birdie on the last hole to beat him by one shot. But we won as a team. So I guess I played OK.
What’s your Handicap Index?
At the beginning of the season, my handicap is 2 or 3, because my short game and my putting are not so good. I finished last season being +0.5.
Any holes in one?
I had two holes in one. I had a hole in one at Stonewall Orchard, hole №9. It was about 177 yards. I was fighting a friend of mine — Bill Sakas, an old teaching pro in the Chicago area — about always wanting to hit draws and cuts and this and that. He would say, ‘Why? You hit the ball straight every time. Just aim at the hole and hit it.’ I would say no. He would say, ‘Please just listen to me one time, you idiot.’ So I aimed at the hole and hit a 7-iron and it literally flew in the hole on the fly. It left a mark on the back of the hole and dropped in. He looked at me and said, ‘Is there anything you want me to say?’ My excuse is if I hit it straight, I don’t know where they’re going. That was my joke.
My second one was last year at Briarwood Country Club, the club I belong to. It was 151 or 152 yards into the wind. I hit an 8-iron and it landed a foot from the hole and turned into the hole.
How much are you playing now?
I’m playing at least four or five times a week.
Are you working on anything?
I always work on something. Since I played with some guys who are really, really good and I hit a driver 290 or 300 and I go to the fairway and I see they’re 30 yards past me, then I get a little mad. Since I’m not sure if it’s me or it’s my shaft in the driver. I’m trying to find a shaft that will give me another 30 yards. I’m blaming it on equipment. I was never fitted for clubs. I gotta do that one time. I know I’m not a standard guy standing 6 feet 10 inches, but everyone has all the equipment.●
