OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA | Matt Vogt never had any illusions about himself as a golfer.
The young Scottie Scheffler may have worn long pants in the Texas summer heat because that’s what pro golfers do and Rory McIlroy was a prodigy, chipping golf balls into washing machines on television before his baby teeth fell out but Vogt stared reality in the face.
It’s one thing to dream big. It’s something else, maybe something just as important, to understand the limits of those dreams.
“Honestly, maybe I didn’t dream big enough or maybe, I don’t know, I just never quite had it. I played around a lot of guys who you could tell had it and had a chance to make a shot at professional golf. It never really crossed my mind,” the 34-year-old Vogt said Monday afternoon as his first U.S. Open week was coming to life at Oakmont Country Club.
Part of the charm of the U.S. Open is the annual story of amateurs – often professionals in other lines of work – who play their way into the field, emerging from more than 10,000 aspirants who are like the proverbial dog chasing the car.
In this case, Vogt caught the car and now he’s in the U.S. Open with a story that reaches beyond the golf. A Pittsburgh-area native, Vogt spent six years as a caddie at Oakmont, which is a bit like working as a sous chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Now he’s doing pre-tournament interviews in a makeshift room not far from the caddie porch he once occupied and preparing to put himself through the hardest test in golf.
Beyond that, Vogt is a dentist in Indianapolis, sharing a practice with another dentist so that when he’s not installing crowns or doing root canals, he can work on his golf game and be a dad to the 15-month-old daughter he and his wife, Hilary, have.
Typically, Vogt sees patients two or three days a week and helps young dentists navigate the intricacies of establishing their own practices, something dental school doesn’t teach.
“I love my patients. I’d like to think they love me as much as they can love a dentist,” said Vogt, who started his practice in Indianapolis in 2018.
“It’s a unique time in my life where, yes, my father passed, and I miss him dearly, but I have this beautiful 15-month-old daughter and a wife who supports me in pursuing this and doing these kinds of things. I thank God every day for them. I really do.” – Matt Vogt
To humanize Vogt’s story even more, his father, Jim, passed away two months ago after battling colon cancer and, not surprisingly, there are moments when the thoughts and the emotions come racing up on him, like on the ninth hole of his Monday practice round.
Vogt, who is wearing a blue ribbon on his cap to signify the fight against colon cancer, had signed some autographs for a few youngsters and took a moment to look skyward.
“It’s a unique time in my life where, yes, my father passed, and I miss him dearly, but I have this beautiful 15-month-old daughter and a wife who supports me in pursuing this and doing these kinds of things. I thank God every day for them. I really do.
“I thank God for everything in my life. I think this weekend is going to be full of gratitude and hopefully some good golf too,” Vogt said, his voice catching and his eyes glistening.
Ten days ago, Vogt was prepping for a one-day qualifier at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington, figuring a course he had never seen played to his strengths better than any of the other sectional qualifying venues. He was right, taking medalist honors and earning the opportunity to hit balls alongside the game’s biggest stars and match scorecards with them come Thursday.
All of it has come rushing at Vogt, whose story has touched a soft spot with many. He is staying with his friend and caddie Kevin O’Brien, a high-level amateur, and they have talked about managing the moment while also managing one of the most difficult courses in the game.
“As well as anyone could, he’s embracing it and trying to remember that there is golf to be played and we have to focus on hitting good shots,” O’Brien said.
“It’s a tall task against Scottie and Bryson [DeChambeau] and everyone to think you’re going to be up at the top of the leaderboard but he’s got the shots and the game to play good golf. What good golf is out here, we’ll see.”
Vogt has plenty of power and he’s found success using the straight-arm putting style similar to what DeChambeau employs. Though it’s been several years since he caddied at Oakmont, Vogt has an understanding of the place, though recent restoration work has added some new wrinkles.
“When you caddie here, you’re not really viewing the golf course in the lens of like tour-level golf, so that’s been interesting,” Vogt said.
“I’m going around and thinking how I would play the golf course now at this point in my life, so that’s been a bit of a change. Like I know everything that’s going on, but not to the level of detail that you need to play in the U.S. Open.”
“I guess that’s one of my goals in doing all this this week, besides obviously doing the best I can in the golf tournament, is just to inspire some people, to let them know that it’s never too late to try to pursue something in your life that you think is really cool and it’s something you want to do …” – Matt Vogt
Vogt has tried to keep the sentimentality of playing his first U.S. Open at a place where he caddied for so long at arm’s length, knowing as well as anyone that it takes more than happy thoughts to get around Oakmont.
He’s twice the age of 17-year-old Mason Howell, another amateur who qualified to play at Oakmont, further illustrating the meritocracy of the national championship. When the week ends, Vogt will go back to his dental practice in Indianapolis having made an impact before the U.S. Open begins, even if he is not entirely sure why.
“I’m not sure why there’s so much interest and why it resonates, but I suppose maybe it’s because people are inspired,” Vogt said.
“I guess that’s one of my goals in doing all this this week, besides obviously doing the best I can in the golf tournament, is just to inspire some people, to let them know that it’s never too late to try to pursue something in your life that you think is really cool and it’s something you want to do that other people think might be foolish or might be a waste of your time or maybe don’t believe in you. Maybe that’s why.”