For the second time in three years I walked up the 18th fairway of the U.S. Open with the champion. While the final approach for one was a precision iron leading to a birdie, this one was an errant shot bouncing off the grandstand followed by a brilliant chip to secure a bogey – and victory on the 72nd hole.
The bogey save for the win seemed perfectly in tune to the story as I entered the final putt on the scoring device. For at Shinnecock on Sunday in 2018, Brooks Koepka’s saves were what I’ll never forget from my time inside the ropes.
But the truth is, the time inside the ropes was just a piece of the bigger story and the bigger joys experienced with friends from around the world.
Literally, four continents of volunteers – people I’d met on golf courses from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro and across the United States – were gathered in the Hamptons for one unique week… a gathering of the brotherhood of golf guys coming together to lend a hand in staging America’s national championship. As walking scorers, laser operators, marshals and more, it was to be a reunion of people who’ve crossed my path – and a time for strangers to become friends through the shared experience.
Bob Young – who grew up in Southampton, England – led the charge for this gathering more than two years ago, pushing a small group of us to gather in Southampton, New York for the 118th U.S. Open. We’d met in Dubai scoring the final event on the European Tour five years earlier and now shared an AirBnb each November right on the marina a couple blocks from the Persian Gulf.
Nick Ford, a retired publishing executive and avid golf volunteer with a son skilled enough to make money at the game, also shares that Dubai flat each year and joined us from London as a member of the Walking Scoring committee at Shinnecock. Dave Wintrip, the final member of our Dubai gang, joined us from Australia for his second USGA volunteer experience having previously journeyed over for the U.S. Women’s Open the summer before.
But they were far from the only folks sacrificing time and money to volunteer on one of America’s greatest golf courses… Tomas Botelho, who had shown us around Rio and Sao Paulo and wandered the Olympic fairways with us in Brazil, had flown up to volunteer as well. My Rio condo-mate and longtime walking scorer buddy Joe Calaban and his wife – also volunteering – were gracious enough to host both Tomas and I in their Hamptons home.
And volunteers Joe and I had met at the Olympics were coming in from Italy, New Jersey and South Carolina to volunteer as well… not to mention the dozen or more gentlemen with whom we’ve scored U.S. Opens for nearly a decade.
But like all U.S. Open weeks of late, there was joy to be found inside the ropes as well. To reunite with Pete Uihlein, his caddie and his swing coach for a few holes during a practice round always makes any week better and more special, to share in the joy and preparation of Sulman Raza, his family, his friends and colleagues from Jones Sports Company in his professional debut and first U.S. Open was inspiring, and to heckle (and get heckled by) – and try to settle a lost golf bet with – Trey Mullinax as he prepped for a week at Shinnecock was unexpectedly full of good fun and humor.
During the Sunday round Rich Beem and I had each other laughing, swapping stories just off the 12th green about New Mexico and his folk-hero status to the British golf fans who follow his every drink and meal as he commentates his way around global golf for SkySports… and I shared a few moments with life-legend Rick Reilly wandering up the right rough on the 18th as Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka eyed up their approach shots.
But the greatest joys this one week in June came outside the ropes.
From world-class restaurants and brew pubs in Southampton proper, to stunning little joints in Westhampton, to an evening spent at the legendary American Hotel in Sag Harbor, to the freshest local seafood cooked and grilled in a rental house under the stars, a different mix of folks gathered each night to share their experiences of the day, tell stories from tournaments past, and discuss with joyous expectation golf courses and tournaments they looked forward to exploring in the future.
Fran, Russell, Tomas and I (a segment of our Olympic crew in Westhampton) even spent time with a spot-on Trump impersonator late one night at a bar… where “Trump” told Tomas he’d almost fixed the Korean peninsula and would get around to fixing Brazil’s broken economy before he was done. The guy was nearly as hilarious as Fran… but Fran stories truly take humor to another level – and have since we weren’t kidnapped by Tomas and his friends in a back alley late at night after way too many beers watching rugby 7’s in Rio.
There were even 18 holes of spectating with Tina Uihlein watching Pete compete on Saturday with one of her friends and the hilarious Chubby Chandler telling stories both appropriate and inappropriate. Watching Pete, especially with Tina, makes golf for me more personal, more compelling, more nerve-wracking and more special – it makes me feel the game in a way I’ve only been lucky enough to feel since 2009 when I met this family who welcomed me as a fan of their kid.
It’s not as if time stopped, but it was as if the rest of the non-golfing world faded back to a respectable distance for seven wonderful days.
And in the waning moments of the week, just a few hours before we’d say so long to Bob, Nick and Dave – but not quite “goodbye” since the four of us would be together for the Open Championship at Carnoustie in just a few short weeks – there were those final holes inside the ropes with DJ and Brooks.
The day turned – for fans, for the field, for Brooks, and certainly for those of us fortunate enough to be inside the ropes with him – on the short, uphill par three 11th hole.
Dustin had hit his tee shot about 150 yards to the middle of the green while Brooks had launched his over the back just on the edge of the tall fescue. With a one-stroke lead over Tommy Fleetwood already in the clubhouse, Brooks and his caddie discussed a calculated risk – rather than leaving his next shot short, they talked about going long into the middle bunker if his ball didn’t come to rest on the green.
I was close enough to Curtis Strange – the last man to win back-to-back U.S. Opens in the late 1980s – to hear him say into his Fox Sports microphone something like, “I can tell you, there’s a big difference having a one-stroke lead in the U.S. Open vs. being tied coming down these final holes.”
As Brook’s shot rolled and rolled across the green, two completely full grandstands groaned in unison as the ball continued into the heart of the sand on the other side of the putting surface.
Wasting little time however, the 2017 champion knocked his third shot five or six feet below the hole and he would shortly thereafter roll that in for a remarkable bogey… while Dustin almost equally remarkably three-putted from the middle of the green.
In that moment, right there left of the 11th green, I felt as if Brooks touched the trophy for the first time that day. If it wasn’t yet within his grasp, it was again within his reach. I remember commenting to a USGA guy standing to my left that we may well have just witnessed the bogey that won the U.S. Open.
In fact there was truth in that. The first back-to-back U.S. Open champion in his lifetime, it seemed that Koepka’s fortitude, his putting and the strength he brought with his irons to launch his Titleist free of the ball-eating fescue made all the difference that final round.
As the crowds swelled along the 12th green and the 13th tee, the cheers for the reigning champ grew… the energy was visible, it was loud, and it was passionate. It followed our group across the sandy soil, along the final holes, and up the 18th.
Dotted among the tens of thousands of fans were individuals I’d met along this journey, buddies from around the world and close to home, people with a love for the game and a passion for helping make tournaments just a little bit better with their service.
As joyful as it was to record the champion’s journey for yet another time at the U.S. Open, it was these fellow fans, these guys who give time and talent to volunteer, that made this week one of the most special tournaments yet.