Nick Flanagan is likely the only golfer to ever win a US Amateur and caddie in a US Open at the same course. His connection Oakmont CC is now a lifelong affair; he was given honorary membership after winning the 2003 US Amateur there and the 40-year-old even has an accommodation room named after him within the club’s on-site cabins.
Battle ready after street fighting his way through 38 holes of final qualifying, Marc Leishman hopes a combination of a special connection to Oakmont Country Club and a confident driver will help his quest to become the first Australian professional to win a tournament at the famed Pittsburgh course.
Over the past week, the Pittsburgh area has received upwards of 250 millimetres of rain, according to USGA officials – and even more in the proceeding weeks.
Dentist Matthew Vogt quit his college golf team and stopped competing for seven years, before his recent, inspiring journey back to Oakmont through qualifying commanded the attention of the golf world.
Very few people will ever know what the true relationship was between Arnold Palmer and O.J. Simpson. As two sporting icons, were they friends, or merely fellow “actors” shooting very corny Hertz commercials together in the mid-1980s? What we do know is that their lives became unintentionally tangled in the most bizarre way on a Friday in June nearly 31 years ago.
Despite the top two players in the world having to give up their drivers after creeping into nonconforming status ahead of the PGA Championship and the surrounding hubbub from certain quarters suggesting the driver test needed to be rethought, the USGA will not be changing its plans for testing at next week’s US Open.
Final qualifying went ahead this morning (Monday afternoon in the US) for the 125th US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. So far, Marc Leishman is the only Australian to have locked in a spot for Oakmont in just over a week’s time.
Australian Golf Digest
