2015 US Open leaderboard http://espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard?tour=pga
As the 115th edition of the US Open is poised to get underway after all the hoopla regarding this Chambers Bay course, rock hard, brown, very difficult, with no form to rely on making it difficult to predict who might win, my mind went back to 25 years ago, 1990 when the championship was staged at Medinah, a very wealthy, leafy suburb of Chicago.. and the site of one of my epic road trips..
My pal Bill Bruce joined my late brother Rodney his then wife Gillian and new baby Jennifer and me as we flew down to O'Hare airport and arrived at our home for the next 4 days, we thought, at Gillian's friend Polly's home, just 80 yards from the front gate at Medinah.. I couldn't believe how close we were.
Polly, from Toronto had married a guy who's family lived there, and he and Polly and their dogs shared one house, the father and mother the other, it was an ideal spot.
Polly's dad made a small fortune that week parking cars on their lawns at $25.00 US per car, and he got up to $100 from a few guys.
It was a great week, seeing all the sites in that great sports town, we golfed a couple of courses, ate and drank far too much, but the highlight was Medinah and being able with our tickets to walk back and forth from the house to the course... usually for cocktails..
On Sunday we staked out our seats at 7am in the stands right behind the 18th green and watched history unfold. 18 at Medinah is a dog leg left and we could see from our seats where the tee shots landed, then watch the their approach shots come up the fairway onto the green, and the flag was tucked in the back left corner, with over hanging trees protecting it.
Greg Norman was world #1, Jack was in the field, Nick Faldo before he became Sir Nick, Fuzzy was skinny then, Seve was still playing, all the stars were there..
But it was journey man Mike Donald who was playing the golf of his life who had the lead that Sunday and as we watched the big scoreboard he kept putting up par after par at -9. Hale Irwin at 45 put on a charge on the back nine making 4 birdies in 7 holes including the famous 60 footer from down at the front of the 18th right up and across the green, and then clad in his bright red pants he lept in the air and ran a lap around the green high fiving all the way.
He was at -8, and when Donald made bogey on the hardest hole on the course, the par 3 16th he couldn't birdie 17 and missed a 15 foot putt at 18 for the win and therefore an 18 hole playoff ensued on the Monday.
A storm blew threw on Sunday night and luckily we couldn't get out of O'Hare so made the appropriate calls home and stayed to watch Monday's playoff..
We all know the result, Donald hung in all day, made one bogey at 15 I think, pulled his tee shot into the trees at 18 leaving Irwin with a putt for par for the win, his 3rd US Open (1974, 79)
It was Donald's moment and he never got another. He lost his tour card the next year, and never got it back, falling down through the ranks, he last played on the Champions tour in 2012 at the US Senior and now lives, single, in south Florida, playing mini tours, Monday qualifying where he can...
Hale Irwin is in the Hall of Fame, he was kind enough to day to Bob Rosberg in the greenside interview that he almost wished Donald had won it....not nearly as much as Mike did,,
.. and I was there to see it all.
Bryan
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