U.S. Open 2025: Surprise contender James Nicholas once went viral for this miraculous water shot

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One of the best stories from Thursday at the U.S. Open was James Nicholas. The first-time qualifier from Scarsdale, N.Y. via Yale University (NBD) shot a one-under-par 69 at Oakmont to get on the first page of the leaderboard after Day 1 and he got a lot of airtime during USA’s TV coverage. Actually, his entire family did.

As the broadcast pointed out, James’ grandfather, Dr. James Nicholas, was a renowned orthopedic surgeon who is credited with saving Joe Namath’s career. And young James’ dad, Dr. Stephen Nicholas, is also a renowned orthopedic surgeon who I’ve credited with saving my golf career. Although, they didn’t mention that during the coverage for some reason.

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“The family’s got all sorts of talents,” NBC Sports’ Dan Hicks said at one point. But let’s stick with the 28-year-old golfer making his U.S. Open debut. And recall that he went viral a decade ago for this insane shot out of a water hazard during the 2015 New York State high school championship.

What a recovery. And it actually was the difference in him winning the state title by a shot.

That kind of talent won’t come in handy this week with Oakmont not having any traditional water hazards, but that’s a cool clip to have. And it’s one you might see them show on TV, if James continues his strong play there.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com