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BROOKLINE, Mass. — On Sunday, Luke Gannon played at The Country Club in preparation for US Open 122. It was the first time he had seen the course. The plan was to play 18. When he got to the 10th tee, a figure away in the middle of the fairway waved him off. It was Phil Michaelson. Thus began the work week of a little-known mini-tour player who is making his first appearance at the national open.
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“He was very nice,” Gannon said of his time with Mickelson, “but I left him alone.” They exchanged small talk, but not much else. Gannon then talked about how cool it was to play with a Hall of Famer. She is one of the beauties of the US Open: a former janitor playing a practice round with a six-time Grand Slam champion.
A potentially awkward moment was avoided. “Fortunately, my shirts weren’t ready yet,” Gannon said. Fire Pit Collective is chronicling Gannon’s journey this week, and he’ll be wearing t-shirts with the Fire Pit Foundation logo on the sleeve. The logo was added at short notice (shoutout to Ink’d), but the jerseys hadn’t arrived yet. As you probably know, my colleague Alan Shipnuck wrote a book on Mickelson that has generated quite a bit of conversation.
On Saturday, Gannon traveled from his home in Illinois to his hotel outside of Boston, the Homewood Suites, which, due to thefts during open week, charges $350 a night. With a long week ahead of him, he’s focused on being fresh when he arrives at his 8:57 am dismissal time on Thursday. Gannon played 18 holes on Sunday and sticks to nine a day the rest of the week.
“I just wanted to see the course and play,” he said of his round on Sunday. I would spend the next three days mapping the greens and making more strategies.
Gannon has hired a professional caddy for the week. He reached out to Perry Gammon, who normally works for Rod Pampling on the Senior Tour. Gannon carries his bag on most of the mini tour and Monday Qs he plays, but the few times he’s taken a caddy, he’s usually turned to a friend. “I decided this is the biggest week of my career,” he said. “I thought it was worth investing in a professional caddy.”
On Monday, I found Gannon in the field and saw that he was sporting a staff bag. “Good thing you get free stuff when you get to a Tour event,” I told him. Actually, his brother, Drew, had bought the bag for him. He wasn’t about to let his little brother tee off at the US Open wearing a carry bag, with a broken strap, no less.
That’s not to say Gannon didn’t take advantage of the situation. He made the team trailer rounds, scoring a pair of FootJoys, a 3-iron and a wedge, though he admitted he had recently acquired new wedges. You have to grab the presents when you can; these things are not distributed in the tours that Gannon usually does.
On Monday, Gannon played the first nine with his good friend Sam Stevens, another player who entered the Open through qualifying. As they toured The Country Club, I noticed how much they discussed each hole. They discussed strategy off the tee on the attainable par 4 5th and what kind of shots they would play around the green, among other things. For a qualifier who doesn’t know many players on the field, it was nice to have a friend to chat with and share the experience with. They were joined by six-time European Tour winner Thorbjorn Olesen and PGA Tour veteran Andrew Putnam. Olesen didn’t say much because he was busy with an intense trainer, who followed his every move. Putnam was friendly and made typical small talk during delays. The sign carried by the standard bearer had only two names: Putnam and Olesen. It was an indication of Gannon and Stevens’ status in the game.
Practice rounds are usually terribly slow; in a specialty, they can be devious. Gannon’s group left just after lunch. They hit their tee shots on the second hole 40 minutes after starting and completed their nine holes in three hours and 15 minutes. “I was going to try to play 18, but it gets dark after eight hours,” Stevens joked early on. Because the rough around the greens is so thick, players take numerous shots from the spots. After three chips or putts from a particular area, Gannon would pull out his yardage book to mark the break and take notes.
His day ended with some work at the shooting range and a drive to the airport in his courtesy car, a Lexus, to pick up his wife, Ellyn.
I met Gannon at the range Tuesday morning, and after finishing his warm-up, he headed to the 10th tee for his nine holes of work. One problem: he wasn’t on the start sheet. Not for 1 pm anyway. Denny McCarthy, whom Gannon had arranged to play with, was also confused. They were informed that even if they intended to play backhand only, they should have set aside a time from the first tee and estimated when they would have turned around. So they contemplated heading to the first tee to see if they could get in.
Then McCarthy, who is playing in his third US Open but first since 2016, yelled at Gannon that they could, in fact, come from behind. The only problem was that his caddy, Gammon, was already heading to the first tee, a good 500 yards ahead of us. Gannon ran to catch it.
Back on the 10th tee, the starter continued to deny McCarthy’s request to start with no tee time. Finally a compromise was reached. The 8th tee is connected to the 10th; Gannon and McCarthy would be allowed to start on the 8th because there was a morning tee time at the front that was empty. crisis averted.
Less than 48 hours until Luke Gannon plays in the biggest tournament of his life. He will continue to study, knowing that the toughest test awaits him.