Second thoughts

Caddie helps smooth out bumpy ride

Michael Greller (left) talks with golfer Jordan Spieth at Dublin, Ohio, on June 7. Greller, who once caddied at Chambers Bay Golf Course, was able to pass along his knowledge of the course to Spieth, who won the U.S. Open on Sunday.
Michael Greller (left) talks with golfer Jordan Spieth at Dublin, Ohio, on June 7. Greller, who once caddied at Chambers Bay Golf Course, was able to pass along his knowledge of the course to Spieth, who won the U.S. Open on Sunday.

Plenty has been written and said about Chambers Bay Golf Course, which played host to the U.S. Open over the weekend and drew plenty of criticism from the players.

Even Jordan Spieth, who won the tournament, had issues with how the course was set up.

But there is one guy you won't hear complaining.

Michael Greller once hauled two golf bags around Chambers Bay in the mornings, then did it again with another in the afternoon, just to make a couple hundred bucks.

His payday this week will be a whole lot better.

The local boy who caddied at the course when it first opened helped guide Spieth to the title Sunday, calmly helping Spieth rebound from a double-bogey at No. 17 to make birdie on the closing hole for his second major championship.

"He was just incredibly patient this week," Greller said of Spieth. "Obviously the U.S. Open tests your patience more than any other tournament by a mile, and being a new course nobody knows very well, it tests your patience even more."

That's why Greller proved to be so important.

Not only does he have local knowledge, whenever Spieth found himself in trouble it was Greller who was there to help him out of it -- whether it was thick, wiry fescue lining the fairways or reading the bumpy, barren greens that gave everyone fits.

"He was the one that got me through this week," Spieth said. "That was probably the best work Michael has ever done this week to get me through."

And Spieth really needed the help down the stretch Sunday.

Spieth took a two-shot lead to the par-3 17th, but he shoved his tee shot into the deep rough near a massive waste bunker. By the time he finally tapped in for double bogey, Spieth had dropped to 4 under and into a tie with Louis Oosthuizen, who was already in the clubhouse.

"You knew he had to make birdie on 18," Greller said.

Spieth did, and he and Greller watched as Dustin Johnson missed an eagle putt on the same finishing hole a moment later that would have won the tournament. Then Johnson missed a putt coming back that would have forced an 18-hole playoff.

It was the wildest of emotional swings for Greller, who met Spieth at nearby Gold Mountain at the 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur, became his full-time caddie and helped him win the Masters earlier this year.

"We teed it up on Thursday, I was driving into work that day and I thought, 'Wow, this is literally a dream come true,' " Greller said. "No matter what happened this week."

Quick hits

• From Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy, on Twitter, regarding allegations that the St Louis Cardinals hacked the Houston Astros' player database: "In keeping with baseball tradition, a Houston exec should walk into the STL offices and hit their best front office guy with a fastball."

• A teaser from Fark.com: Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan rock opera musical opens. Critics assigned to review it ask: "Why me?"

• From Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald: "The University of Texas will sell beer at 2015 home games. That's today's 'Be Glad We're Out of the Big 12' item. Just the chance this could lead to a drunk Bevo running the field is reason enough not to do it."

Sports quiz

Jordan Spieth won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship in 2009 and 2011. Name the only other golfer to win it more than once.

Answer

Tiger Woods won it three times (1991, 1992 and 1993).

Sports on 06/23/2015

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