In training for the US Open, every stroke counts, including stroke

PURCHASE, NY — James Nicholas, a former Yale biology major who chose Q School over med school, has played all over the world in his 29 years, including Kenya and Qatar, across Europe and South America. But on Monday, he played in his kid’s yard, so to speak. Raised in nearby Scarsdale, he had breakfast at his childhood home on Monday and then took a short trip to the Golf Club of Purchase for the first part of his 36-day one-day qualifier for the US Open – National Open, at Shinnecock Hills.

Nicholas – with his wife, America, playing for him – shot on the morning of 68. Seventy-nine players are four spots. So far, so good. The husband and wife drove five minutes to Century Country Club, a Golden Age gem. Shopping is the Golden Bear (Jack Nicklaus) show. modern.

Nicholas did four straight episodes starting at Century. Moving on to the 5th, a 460-yard par-4 that you can’t miss on the right. Nicholas played in 13 Korn Ferry events this year and made six cuts, though not his last two. That was then, this is now. However now golf is always, to some extent, shaped by everything that came before it.

The driver came in holding his hand. America, a psychology major and dancer as an undergraduate at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., kept her husband’s purse locked and upright. You may know the couple, together since high school. They share their lives on the golf course on social media in a way that few, if any, golf lovers do. Shrimp and orzo salad for a late dinner and more. Looking for a healthy, balanced life, find James and America on all your favorite platforms.

On the 5th, Nicholas drove it well. His Titleist ball went into deep territory that was not intended for either man or ball. His timing was terrible, 20 yards to his first right and it was completely gone. If you and I were playing for fun, we’d be done by then, wouldn’t we? Your hole – just put me down on 7. But you can’t, of course, do that in the US Open qualifiers.

Young James Nicholas, who played in his first US Open last year at Oakmont (he played in the fourth round with Brian Harman – what fun that?), he looked depressed. His mother and brother and caddy, as well. A dozen or more interested spectators, ibid. His former college coach, Colin Sheehan, was following the action on his laptop while on a family vacation in Athens. (How Yale is all that?) Finally, Nicholas’ second putt — his third drive from the 5th tee — landed right on Broadway. A par on his third ball would mean an 8 on the hole. It’s hard to recover from that.

One of the spectators walked down the 5th fairway. You only get three minutes to search for the stray ball but the clock doesn’t start until the player arrives on the scene. The marshal was out there, in the land of the lost, with a vague idea of ​​where the first ball went. The viewer running — okay, we’re running, the man is 58 and not on an orzo salad diet — was no ordinary viewer. It was Phil Mintz, a disgraced former Duke tennis player, retired partner at Apollo Global Management and, significantly in this context, a four-time Century club champion who had played golf with Nicholas since Nicholas was at Scarsdale High. A local high school golf coach, Mark Canno, followed Mintz. Both are Nich-o-philes. “He’s not only the best player I’ve seen here, but also the nicest kid,” Canno will tell you. Mintz would say the same. He had taken Nicholas out to practice a few days earlier.

Nicholas grew up playing at Westchester Country Club and Winged Foot. So, yes, high cotton, New York style. Mintz describes the Century as “the Jewish Winged Foot.” It’s completely different and the same, if you know what I mean, and you might not. Century takes on a handful of new members a year, if that.

You could write a book about upper crust golf in Westchester County. In all of golf, beyond the United States, there is nothing like it, the abundance of wealth, the beauty of the courses, the intermingling of nations, the timelessness of it all. Before Monday, I hadn’t been to Century in 40 years, since I played a 36-hole qualifier the night before the 1986 US Open, also at Shinnecock Hills. The whole area seems unchanged, except that there is a new men’s room in one shop outside the clubhouse, which is perfect for when you change, with a black and white photo of Ben Hogan in action on one wall and a single color of local boy Cameron Young, who does the same, on the other.

Back on the 5th, noon Monday. Phil Mintz couldn’t believe how thick the vegetation was. No one hits it where Nicholas hits it, except for the 100 shooters who advance with bad pieces. Mintz was retrieving plant life with two arms and two feet, searching for a needle in a haystack, and the clock was running. Where’s MacGyver when you need him? But even Angus MacGyver, wielding his Swiss Army knife like a machete in this forest, would have been full of fear. “That ball could have been anywhere,” Mintz said later. “There was no hope.”

And then — wonder of wonders, wonders — a vision appeared before Mintz’s eyes: a shiny white golf ball, apparently a new arrival.

Mintz turned around. Now Nicholas was close. “You have an American flag on it, don’t you?”

How do you spell? relief?

MINTZ.

Nicholas almost laughed at his luck.

He took an unplayable lie – there was absolutely no chance of advancing it from where he was – he hit a careless third shot (after the penalty), made a good stop from eight feet from the green and made a short 5 putt. That bogey meant the difference between making Shinnecock and not.

“And now we’re going to the Hamptons,” said America when the longest day of golf was over. He looked so happy that he was not exhausted at all. Neither did her husband. These are the right people in every way. More than a few times during Monday, she gave her husband a monologue before playing the song: “Commit yourselves.” This week, Nicholas will be playing at the Korn Ferry stop in Amarillo, Texas – with his familiar, not American, friend in his bag.

From there, he went to Southampton, on the basis of Nicholas’ morning 68 and his afternoon 72. His 140 was good enough to secure one of the four places. One stroke might have been too many – there would have been a playoff with Australian golf veteran Matt Jones. Ben James, who grew up in Milford, Conn., also shot 140. The winner was Kevin Roy, who grew up in upstate New York and shot 134. Tour player Max Greyserman, of Short Hills, NJ, finished second, two shots behind Roy. Four qualifiers from the Northeast, playing in your heart.

“I played well this morning,” Grayserman said. But this afternoon I was driving it everywhere, and these plants are as fast and strong as anything we see on Tour. It had to be like that. Trying to win a national championship is stressful. Greyserman’s parents immigrated to the United States from Ukraine when they were young. What are the odds? What are the chances of this guy playing his way into a third US Open?

UP. Mintz received a text Monday night from J. Nicholas.

I owe you.

“He’s a good kid,” Mintz said. “He doesn’t owe me anything.”

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com