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In a year full of disruptions, golf fans have just endured yet another – Father’s Day without the U.S. Open. That was the result of the USGA postponing the tournament to mid-September, due to the pandemic. And it gave the occasion a different sort of aura. Not even being able to watch professional golf that Sunday afternoon, in the form of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, filled the void.
Some of that sense of emptiness comes from the Open being must-see TV, like all major championships. And no number of Law & Order reruns can possibly replace it. With its traditional playing on Father’s Day, the fourth and often final round of that tournament had become part of what my mates and I consider perhaps the best golf day of the year. We tee it up together in the morning, enjoy lunch and a beer afterward and then head back to our respective homes, happily settling into our easy chairs as the final groups head out. There are no lawns to be mowed these afternoons. No weeding of gardens. Golf is the only item on the agenda.
I have some favorite Father’s Day moments when it comes to the U.S. Open. In 1998, for example, I traveled to San Francisco with my then-7-year-old daughter Exa to conduct a couple of book signings at the Olympic Club during the tournament. The last of those was on Sunday morning, and when it was over Exa and I left the cavernous USGA merchandise tent for the golf course. We stopped by the practice putting green to watch the 54-hole leader Payne Stewart hone his stroke before his round. And when he was done, I watched him speak briefly to his caddie, Mike Hicks, before walking to the first tee. Hicks then slung his bag over his shoulder and came over to us. He handed Exa a golf ball and said: “Payne Stewart wants you to have this.” Then, Hicks turned to me and said: “Happy Father’s Day.”
Stewart was just as endearing the following Father’s Day when he cupped dad-to-be Phil Mickelson’s head in his hands after besting Lefty by a stroke to win that year’s Open, saying: “You are going to love being a father.” And the next day, Michelson became a dad for the first time, when his wife, Amy, gave birth to their daughter, Amanda.
There are other images from Opens past that have brought fathers and sons together in different ways. Tom Watson having his son Michael caddie for him on the last day of the 2010 tournament at Pebble Beach, on the same course Watson had won his only U.S. Open 28 years earlier. Jay and Bill Haas both making the cut at the 2004 Open at Shinnecock Hills, and playing in successive groups the final day. Justin Rose pointing to the heavens after winning his U.S. Open in 2013 and acknowledging his father, Ken, who had died of cancer 11 years before.
I missed moments like those, almost as much as the tournament itself.
Top: Tom Watson and his son, Michael, during the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach
John Steinbreder