A wet U.S. Open and ending Cleveland’s drought

Grant Gannon

June brought two exciting first experiences in my young life — I attended my first U.S. Open and I saw Cleveland’s first championship by a major sports team in 52 years. Who would’ve thought that those two things would happen on the same weekend?

Typically, Editor-in-Chief Seth Jones is the one making the trip to the U.S. Open, but the 2016 championship at Oakmont (Pa.) CC was practically in my backyard of Cleveland, Ohio. Jones was at the course from Sunday to Wednesday, then I picked up the torch to finish out our field coverage.

It’s a good thing I was there, because that’s when things got wet and wild. While riding up to Oakmont on Thursday morning, spectators already were walking away from the course because play had been suspended for the first time that day.

This became the theme of my first day at the Open, with two more delays before play was officially suspended at 4:34 p.m. after 2.3 inches of ran fell on the course in less than 24 hours. I decided to walk around the course to get an idea of what the maintenance crew of 190 was going to contend with.

It was eerie being practically alone at an event prepared for thousands. Inside the ropes looked fine, but many bunkers were washed out. Water was abundant outside the ropes, supersaturating the turf and walking paths.

I finally ran into life — some crew members, of course — at 6 p.m., working on bunkers. For the next two hours I ventured around the course as the maintenance crew shoveled, pumped, raked and pushed water and sand. To see all of Golfdom’s extended coverage of the U.S. Open, click here.

After Oakmont, my fiancée and I quickly turned around on Sunday to get home for game seven of the NBA Finals. We had tickets to the watch party at the Cavs home court, Quicken Loans Arena.

Yes, we paid $5 per ticket to watch a basketball game on a giant television screen, and it totally was worth it.
That night we watched the “curse” on Cleveland lifted for the first time in 52 years. I won’t bore you with a play-by-play of the game, but I can tell you that it wasn’t until the clock hit triple zeros that the arena erupted and the party began.

Then we went onto the streets. The city was a single mind, celebrating the championship it had been waiting for so long. We hit the sidewalk and were among fellow Clevelanders of every color, race and age giving high fives and shouting “Go Cavs” to one another. It’s a sight I will never forget.

My biggest shock? The lack of alcohol in bars after the game. We went to one near North Coast Media’s headquarters, and I was able to snag four Corona Lights before they closed. A guy approached me and offered to buy two of them for $20. Sold!

I then realized that was a grave mistake, because most of the bars downtown ran out of beer and had to close down. It was more than an hour later that we found another establishment that had anything, which was (ugh) hard cider. But like my dad always tells me, “Buddy, there’s only two types of beer in this world: warm beer and cold beer. I’ll take mine cold.”

Those were the most refreshing cold cider beers I’ve had in my life. I just hope the bars have enough beer the next time a Cleveland team wins a crown — and that I don’t have to wait 52 years to taste it.