BROOKLINE, Massachusetts. – If anyone wondered how fans treated Phil Mickelson this week at the US Open despite being portrayed as an in-game villain following his game for the LIV Golf Invitational series, Keegan Bradley answered the question.
“I was laying the first tee [Tuesday] and Phil was getting ready to play, and he got a standing ovation,” Bradley said Wednesday, “People [were] applause. Phil was giving everyone a thumbs up.
“I think he will do very well. He sounded like the same Phil Mickelson with the crowd that I’ve always heard.
Mickelson has been seen signing autographs all week at the Country Club, apparently as popular as ever.
Rory McIlroy has brought back his usual caddy, Harry Diamond. Diamond missed last week’s Canadian Open, which McIlroy won, to be with his wife, who was in labor. Niall O’Connor, a former Irish rugby star and friend of McIlroy’s, replaced Diamond. O’Connor previously caddyed for McIlroy at the 2019 World DP Championships in Dubai.
“Niall and [my] the race was over at this point,” McIlroy said. “Very good record. He had a fourth in Dubai and a first in Canada. If I ever need someone to replace Harry, I have a very good replacement there.
A young man from Sports Illustrated asked McIlroy, amid a series of questions on LIV Golf, about the significance of former caddy Francis Ouimet’s famous 1913 US Open win at Brookline, given McIlroy’s relationship with his caddy. . .
“It’s funny that the best question comes from a child,” McIlroy joked. “This course and the story of Francis Ouimet, 1913, that’s the good thing about golf, its history and tradition and those stories. The fact that he grew up right next to the 17th hole here and we still talk about him to this day over 100 years later is great. That’s the beauty of this sport.”
Justin Thomas, who grew up in Kentucky, is a Red Sox fan.
“My uncle is from that area, and he’s a huge Red Sox fan, and it wasn’t something that wasn’t a birthday present or a Christmas present from him, it was anything but the Red Sox,” Thomas said. . “He had a lot of sweaters, t-shirts, a lot of hats, a lot of blankets.”
Your favorite players?
“So my first Red Sox jersey was a David Ortiz jersey,” he said. “[My uncle] took me to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game at Fenway for my one-year-old birthday, which was really cool. I think he was probably 12 years old. I went to a Yankees game against the Red Sox at the old Yankee Stadium. I remember because I had my Nomar [Garciaparra] jersey, and they yelled at me and insulted me and they pulled their fingers and I was 9 years old. It was my first introduction to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.”
Brooks Koepka was recently married and there were photos all over Instagram. Collin Morikawa said that he was getting married soon, but that she was avoiding publicity.
“I definitely know when we’re getting married, but I’m not going to share it,” Morikawa said. “We like to keep things private. I think that’s what we are. I’m sure people will know, but there’s no way our wedding is as important as [Koepka’s]. I think yours were pretty impressive.
If there is a tie break on Sunday, it will be a two-hole aggregate played on the 1st and 18th holes. If it is still tied after that, it will go to sudden death.
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