Rachel Kuehn is a rising amateur golfer who is also the partner of DP World Tour player, Alex Fitzpatrick - brother of 2022 US Open champion and Ryder Cup winner, Matt Fitzpatrick.
Kuehn is a former World No.4 in the amateur game from Asheville, North Carolina who enrolled at Wake Forest University in 2019 and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year in 2022 prior to her graduation in 2023.
A three-time Espirito Santo Trophy participant - once for the Dominican Republic alongside her mother and twice representing the USA - Kuehn picked up the silver medal at the 2022 event in a team with Rachel Heck and LPGA Tour star, Rose Zhang.
Born into an extremely successful athletic family, Kuehn herself was a state champion in tennis before turning her attention to golf.
Her mother, Brenda, was a Hall of Fame golfer at Wake Forest and represented both her native Dominican Republic and the USA in the Espirito Santo Trophy (four times) and Curtis Cup (twice).
As well as that, Brenda appeared in the U.S. Women's Amateur 16 times, in the U.S. Women's Open nine times, and was runner-up at the Women's Mid-Amateur (1995).
However, arguably Brenda's most-memorable achievement was playing while eight months pregnant at the 2001 US Women's Open at Pine Needles. Rachel's mother is said to have felt a contraction while hitting her tee shot on the 11th hole during the opening round, and she delivered her daughter eight days later.
Briefly mentioning that story during her cameo role in Full Swing Season 2 alongside Fitzpatrick, Rachel Kuehn said: “The big story that always comes up about my mom is she played in the US Open in 2001 eight months pregnant with me. So - basically - I’ve already played in the US Open! I basically had an inside the ropes pass."
Elsewhere in her family, Rachel's father, Eric and her two uncles were Division I baseball players while her brother Corrie played collegiate golf. Rachel's grandfather on her mother's side, Jack Corrie, represented Venezuela in the 1958 Eisenhower Trophy and played golf and basketball at MIT.
The 22-year-old's now boyfriend is an excellent golfer in his own right, having turned professional and progressed onto the European Tour in 2022. Alex - who also attended Wake Forest - talked about Rachel during his episode of Full Swing Season 2, recorded in the summer of 2023.
He said: “My girlfriend’s name is Rachel Kuehn, I think at the moment she’s ranked fourth in the world for the amateur rankings. Incredibly smart girl and not sure what she’s doing with me, so I’m pretty lucky.”
That particular episode highlighted Alex's struggles to "get out of Matt's shadow" - his older brother who has represented Team Europe at the Ryder Cup and is an established PGA Tour golfer.
After touching on how they met and what attracted the other to their partner, Rachel went on to talk about what Alex deals with as the younger brother of one of Europe's best players.
Rachel said: “First time I met him there was just something about the way he carried himself, which everyone seems to be drawn into. We kind of started talking and three years down the road here we are.”
Alex said: “In professional sport there’s not a lot of people that have comparisons to brothers or siblings, but Rachel’s mum Brenda Kuehn was a really good golfer. Growing up, we both had these similar situations."
Rachel continued: "I think it’s something that you and I kind of bonded over in the beginning, like, I felt like I almost had something to prove to show that I’m my own person and you always thought that you were trying to get out of Matt’s shadow."
At a later point in the episode, following clips of the Fitzpatrick brothers' disappointing end to the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Rachel said: “Alex feels that all the work he puts into his golf kind of gets discounted because of his older brother.
"He really wants to feel like he can belong and that he does belong, and I know how much time and effort he’s put into it. So it was hard to watch him come off the golf course that last day knowing he felt like he didn’t play great."
At the time of writing, Rachel is the World No.9 in women's amateur golf with three wins and 18 top-10 finishes to her name.
12 FACTS ABOUT RACHEL KUEHN
- Kuehn was a state champion in tennis before focusing on golf.
- Rachel's mother Brenda made headlines at the 2001 US Women's Open by playing while eight months pregnant with Rachel.
- Kuehn appeared in the 2018 Espirito Santo Trophy for the Dominican Republic alongside her mother.
- Rachel represented the Dominican Republic in the women's individual golf event at 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.
- She played college golf for Wake Forest Demon Deacons women's golf team and was All-American every season during her time there as well as ACC Player of the Year in 2022.
- Rachel became the only Wake Forest University player to win her first collegiate start, the Annika Invitational, tying the tournament record (-13).
- She also broke the individual 18-hole school record (63) in 2021.
- In 2020, Kuehn won the North and South Women's Amateur at Pinehurst No.2.
- Kuehn secured the winning point for Team USA at the 2021 Curtis Cup at Conwy Golf Club in Wales by defeating Scotland's Louise Duncan.
- She then repeated the feat at the 2022 event by seeing off Caleb McGinty 2&1.
- Kuehn earned silver at the 2022 Espirito Santo Trophy in France alongside Rachel Heck and Rose Zhang while playing for the United States.
- Rachel has made four professional starts so far, with a highest finish of T15 at the 2023 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
