Better late than never

The U.S. Open was in D.C. June 16-19.  As the event was essentially in our backyard, we decided to go.  We ended up getting tickets to the final on Sunday.   Sadly, most if not all major golf tournaments do not let you take pictures after the practice rounds.  All photos on this post are courtesy of the magic of the internet.

As the tournament proceeded, Rory McIlory built up a tremendous  lead and was on a record breaking pace. 

Come Sunday, the Open was seemingly in hand. While Kelly is a sucker for a pressure packed finish that creates legends, this final round was going to be a birth of a different type of legend. We were excited to get to watch the next superstar of golf win his 1st major. 

After getting to the course, we decided to walk all the holes and catch up with Phil Mickleson on the back 9. 

Phil had a terrible tournament and ended on a sour note. Hole #18 has water on the backside of the green and bunkers in front. Phil's approach shot landed in the front bunker facing the water. In front of 30,000 people, Phil skulled the ball out of the bunker, over the green and into the water, how embarrassing. I'm sure he didn't have much time to sulk because he was to busy counting the millions of dollars in his bank account! 

We went over the the first tee to watch the final group tee off. "In the final paring from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlory" and they were off. 

Rory birded his first hole and that seemed to dismiss the question of another collapse similar to the Masters. We had only planned on watching him for a few holes, but after he birded two of his first four holes, we thought we might be watching a special round. The crowds were crazy. Everyone trying to get close to the action. 

We found with the right strategy, we could watch every shot and still get close every few holes. When most people ran up close to the tee box or the green we stayed back in order to watch the shot. 

We only missed #5 and #17, other than that we saw every shot of his final round 69 in route to his first major championship. After #16 we ran over to #18 in order to get a seat for the final hole. We were on the backside of the green across the water, directly under the huge leader board.

It was an awesome experience and we are very glad we went. It wasn't an easy day. We estimate that we walked, on an extremely hilly course, around 15 miles.