Golfweek Father's Day Open Reminds Us What Golf Does Best
There are plenty of golf tournaments that keep score. There are far fewer that keep memories quite like the Golfweek Father's Day Open.
The annual event, often referred to as the Golfweek Father-Son Championship, is one of those weekends on the calendar that reminds you what golf can still do better than just about any other sport. It can connect generations. It can stretch a two-person team into a weekend full of laughs, strategy, pressure, storytelling and, sometimes, a few very awkward alternate-shot conversations.
This year's event is being played at Reunion Resort in Kissimmee, Florida, a fitting stage for a tournament built around family golf. Reunion brings together signature golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, which gives the week a little extra weight. This is not just a casual holiday scramble. It is golf with history, golf with structure and golf with plenty of room for dads, sons, daughters and families to make something that lasts.
For me personally, that is the biggest part of the draw.
My dad, Gary, and I are playing again this year, our second straight year in the event. My brother is also playing with my dad, which means Dad gets the unique joy, and occasional stress, of trying to manage two teams at once. My dad and I return as defending flight champions, while my brother and dad look to take another step after a strong finish last year. Being two of the older teams in the event, my dad and I have a combined age of 126, and my brother and dad, clocking in at a team age of 124, can make for some interesting scores.
That is the beauty of this tournament. It can be competitive enough to matter, but personal enough that the scorecard is only part of the story.
The Format Makes It Fun And Tricky
The Golfweek Father's Day Open is played as a two-man, 36-hole modified Chapman format, a style of alternate shot that sounds simple until you actually have to execute it.
Both players hit tee shots. From there, the team chooses how to proceed within the format, and eventually one ball is played into the hole with partners alternating shots. It creates a different kind of tension than a normal best-ball event. You are not just playing your own game. You are trying to put your partner in the right spots, avoid the wrong misses and stay patient when one swing changes the rhythm of a hole.
That dynamic becomes even more interesting when a father is playing with two different partners in the same event. One son may hit it farther. Another may manage the ball better. One team may fit a course a certain way. The other may need a completely different approach.
For dads, especially, it becomes a test of energy, patience and emotional intelligence. For sons, it becomes a reminder that you are not just playing with your father. You are sharing something with him that does not come around forever.
Format Watch
Modified Chapman Is Built For Drama
Both players matter from the start.
Each partner has a chance to set up the hole off the tee.
Strategy is constant.
Teams have to think about comfort zones, misses and who handles which shots best.
Patience wins.
The format rewards calm partners who can recover quickly after a mistake.
More Than A Weekend Tournament
The event has long been built around Father's Day weekend, but its purpose goes deeper than the holiday.
Yes, there are tee gifts. Yes, there are flights. Yes, there are awards luncheons and competitive divisions for amateurs and professionals of varying ages and skill levels. But the heart of it is the same thing so many of us in golf have seen for decades: the game gives families a reason to be together.
That may sound simple, but it matters.
Golf is where many fathers first taught patience without calling it that. It is where they taught etiquette, honesty, resilience and accountability. It is where they gave a look after a bad decision, a quiet "good shot" after a pure strike and, every once in a while, the kind of advice you did not appreciate until years later.
As a PGA Professional, I have spent my life teaching the game. But as a son, I know the game also taught me. It taught me through my dad. It taught me through those rounds where the score did not matter nearly as much as the ride home, the lunch afterward or the stories that somehow get better every year.
Event Footprint
Notable Golfweek Father-Son Host Venues
The event has built its identity around strong destination golf, family-friendly resorts and courses with real tournament pedigree.
Reunion Resort
Kissimmee, Florida | Palmer, Watson and Nicklaus designs on property
Cabot Citrus Farms
Brooksville, Florida | Site of the 2025 event
Walt Disney World's Palm Course
Lake Buena Vista, Florida | Longtime Central Florida tournament venue
PGA National Resort and Spa
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida | Championship golf setting and former host stop
The Father Of The Year Tradition
One of the most meaningful pieces of the Golfweek Father-Son Championship is the Father of the Year Award, a distinction that dates back to 1983.
The honor has gone to major figures in the game, but it is not simply about trophies, money lists or major championships. It is about impact. It is about what fatherhood looks like inside golf and beyond it.
For 2026, Matt Kuchar was honored as Golfweek's Father of the Year, a particularly meaningful recognition after a year in which family and golf have intersected in emotional ways for him. Kuchar has long represented consistency on the course, but this award points to something different. It recognizes the father, the son, the family man and the role golf plays in all of that.
That is why the award fits so naturally into this event. The tournament is not trying to separate competitive golf from family golf. It is proving they can belong together.
Golfweek Tradition
Father Of The Year Honorees Through The Years
The award dates back to 1983 and has honored fathers whose influence on golf reaches beyond their own scorecards.
2026: Matt Kuchar
2025: Murli Theegala
2024: Ernie Els
2023: Kelepi Finau
2022: Mike Keiser
2019: Joe Bockerstette
Past honorees have also included names tied deeply to golf history, including Jack Nicklaus, Earl Woods and Robert Trent Jones.
Why This One Sticks With You
At some point this weekend, my dad will probably hit a shot that makes both my brother and me smile. He may also hit one, or several, that makes one of us wonder how to play the next one from a place we did not exactly have in mind.
That is modified Chapman. That is father-son golf. That is the whole deal.
The Golfweek Father's Day Open works because it does not try to make the game smaller. It lets the game be what it really is for so many families: a bridge.
A bridge between generations. A bridge between memories and new moments. A bridge between competition and gratitude.
There will be winners this week. There will be flight champions, great shots, tough breaks and probably a few stories told at dinner that are only partly accurate. But the real win is getting one more year, one more round and one more walk or cart ride with the people who helped shape your relationship with the game.
That is why this event matters.
And that is why, for my dad, my brother and me, it is already one of the best weekends on the golf calendar.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent "The Starter" on R.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
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This story was originally published June 20, 2026 at 3:49 PM.