SOUTHAMPTON, NY – Pre-eminent sports writer Rick Reilly’s hat said it all. “Pray For Birdies,” it blared in red, white and blue. It feels like an old-school U.S. Open even though the golf course is as wide as a weekend bogey golfer could wish for. Despite the widest fairways in modern tournament history, at the halfway point of the 118th U.S...
SOUTHAMPTON, NY – I want to thank the great Dan Jenkins for today’s writing prompt. He published some of his favorite (and not so favorite Opens) and reminded me that it’s time for my annual U.S. Open history lesson for y’all. So here we go; class is in session. Take good notes. You never know when you’ll be quizzed. GREAT STORIES YOU...
SOUTHAMPTON, NY – My colleague and friend Mike Vaccaro, a sparkling gem of the New York Post sports writing diadem, likes to collect datelines. I remember he was especially proud of “Beijing,” but lamented publicly that it couldn’t be “Peking” instead. Mike and I met writing the dateline “Mamaroneck” in 2006 at Winged...
SOUTHAMPTON – “It’s a process, it’s a process, it’s a process.” If the old Tiger Woods – describing his swing changes – said it once, he said it a thousand times. It became a joke in the media center. I thought it was merely a combination of platitude and mantra; something to he chanted to himself as he worked the range...
Here are the tee times for the 118h U.S. Open. We’ll be live at Shinnecock Hills all week starting Tuesday morning. Thursday (June 14), hole #1 / Friday (June 15), hole #10 6:45 a.m. / 12:30 p.m. – Harold Varner, Gastonia, N.C.; TBD; Matthieu Pavon, France 6:56 a.m. / 12:41 p.m. – Michael Putnam, University Place, Wash.; Scott Gregory, England; Will...
Here are the U.S. Open future sites from 2018-2027. See everyone from Winged Foot for the Anderson Memorial Fourball, followed by Shinnecock for the U.S. Open. 2018: Shinnecock Hills Golf Club – Southampton, N.Y. – June 14-17 2019: Pebble Beach Golf Links – Pebble Beach, Calif. – June 13-16 2020: Winged Foot Golf Club (West Course) –...
So my U.S. Open preview is up at Golf News Net. (They always male it look fantastic!) Ryan Ballengee and I will have wall-to-wall coverage of the tournament all week long, with radio, video, and 1,500 words a day. Plus I’ll have three-day coverage of the Anderson Memorial at Winged Foot. Throw in a round at National Golf Links of America, and that’s a...
SOUTHAMPTON, NY – It’s the best golf design magic trick since Oakmont made 5,000 trees disappear. Now you see it, now you don’t – prest-o! change-o! – and with a wave of a wand, a whiff of diesel, and a crackerjack grounds crew, the fairways of 2018 U.S. Open host Shinnecock Hills narrowed pretty much overnight. Penn and Teller got...
Altogether now: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELK!Steve Elkington, PGA Championship winner in 1995 and a two-time Players Champion joined us on the Jay’s Plays Show to talk the Players, his PGA win at Riviera, the Tour and his latest endeavor, Secret Golf.
We celebrate my Dad’s life tomorrow and Thursday, but for today, I thought you all might to reminisce with me in another way. Many Sundays when covering the U.S. Open, I’d write a Father’s Day piece as a letter to Dad. Here’s my favorite… LA JOLLA, CA – [Editor’s Note: Jay wrote this piece in real time, while watching the...
I shed a tear as I wrote this piece. We lost my beloved Dad this weekend. The son of Italian immigrants, as a WWII vet, he landed at Normandy, survived the bloody Battle of the Bulge, and liberated those persecuted in German concentration camps. Later, in the war-time ski patrol in Europe, he skied the Alps before he returned to America to graduate from the College...
Congratulations to Hank Gola who is being honored by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association with the 2018 Lincoln Werden Golf Journalism Award. Previous award winners include Tim Rosaforte, Jaime Diaz, John Feinstein, Jim Murray (1997), Furman Bisher and Jack Whitaker. The award will be presented June 18 at the Met Golf Writers Dinner at the Westchester Marriott.
Golf News Net has our latest radio show featuring European correspondent Tony Dear and Pittsburgh’s beloved Marino Parascenzo. We talked Patrick Reed, post-Masters, pre-U.S. Open and more.
As always, Golf Course Trades did a phenomenal job with my preview for the U.S. Open. Super Jon Jennings leads an all-star cast of supers, meteorologists, and USGA brass in getting Shinnecock Hills ready for the pros and the National Championship. Jennings is a fascinating guy. as the articles states, “Golf is lucky to have gotten Jennings at all, actually. He...
The awful weather of this never-ending winter continued all across New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and into the Rust Belt and Heartland, crippling travel and causing multiple delays to the start of golf season. Even Shinnecock Hills, site of this year’s U.S. Open, has been affected. Erring on the side of caution (of course) the Club will Open one week later than...