“I was such a nervous wreck,” is how Keegan Bradley described being asked to throw the ceremonial pitch ahead of the Red Sox baseball game with Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park.
As the local boy feeding expectations in the US Open, Bradley accepted the invite to make the toss. “I kept telling my wife, ‘why did I agree to do this? It’s all I need this week’ and every time I walked through the player dining [at Brookline] they were all like, ‘you better throw a good one’ … I was standing behind the mound before the pitch and things were getting fuzzy, that’s how uncomfortable it was,” recalled Bradley who managed to get his throw away successfully.
Which is probably just as well. His wife Jillian is the niece of one of the all-time baseball greats, Carlton Fisk. Or “Uncle Pudge” as Bradley described the legendary catcher, who was name-checked in the movie Good Will Hunting.
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In all three past stagings of the US Open at The Country Club in Brookline, the ultimate destination of the trophy has been determined by a playoff.
Famously in 1913, local amateur Francis Ouimet, who lived across the road from the club, beat Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in an 18-hole aggregate playoff.
In the 1963 US Open, Julius Boros got the better of Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit.
And in the 1988 championship, Curtis Strange defeated Nick Faldo.
There will be one difference this time should there be a requirement for a playoff after 72 holes: rather than an 18-hole playoff, it will be just a two-hole playoff with the first and 18 holes utilised. Should there be a need for further holes, it will go to sudden death with, again, the first and 18th being the holes used.
Mannion gets up close and personal for US Open experience
There were two winners of All-Ireland football medals tracking Shane Lowry inside the ropes as he went about his practice round along with Rory McIlroy on Tuesday.
One of them, of course, was his father Brendan, who was an integral part of the Offaly team which shocked Kerry in the 1982 final.
The other? Paul Mannion, a six-time All-Ireland winner with Dublin who retired from intercounty football at the end of the 2020 campaign.
The 29-year-old is a keen golfer – a member of Powerscourt – but recently moved to Boston where, following the rubber-stamping of his transfer from Kilmacud Crokes, he will this summer be a part of Donegal Boston’s bid for a fourth club championship in a row.
Matt Fitzpatrick hoping to grin and Bear it
Matt Fitzpatrick will aim to join the legendary Jack Nicklaus in one special distinction when he competes at this year’s championship.
The Golden Bear is the only player to have won the US Open and the US Amateur on the same golf course, which he accomplished when winning those titles at Pebble Beach.
Fitzpatrick won the US Amateur at Brookline in 2013 (in what was the 100th anniversary of Francis Ouimet’s US Open win) and will seek to follow Nicklaus’s achievement by adding the US Open this week.
Word of Mouth
“This week my focus is to play golf. I’m far from the smartest person in the room and I’m not a politician. I’m here to follow a white golf ball around and kind of see what it does.” –Cameron Smith, the world No 6, dodging the LIV elephant in the room question.
By the numbers: 83
Australia’s Adam Scott holds the current active Majors played streak heading into the US Open. Scott has played each of the last 83 Majors, a considerable distance ahead of the next best who is Justin Rose (47).
