The golf balls keep on rolling, as do the stories

The U.S. Open, which I watched in the air conditioned comfort of my apartment, was terrific. The Travelers, which begins tomorrow, will be the same, I’m thinking.

If there are not a flood of withdrawals of big-name players at the last minute, and that has happened at the Cromwell tournament in the past, mostly the distant past, this should be one of the best. I’m convinced it will be because the top guys are eager to play here these days. You don’t hear the “poor field” lament any more.

I’m thinking especially of Brooks Koepka, U.S. Open winner, who committed to play at Cromwell well before the Open and is apparently honoring that promise. Time was when the winner of a tournament, having made a commitment, would have found a reason — such as a sudden injury or illness — to take the week off. In early days of the Greater Heartford Open, that was a common occurrence, and when it happened, it disappointed countless fans and cost the sponsors money.

The U.S. Open is considered by many in the golf business to be the No. 1 tournament, bigger and more prestigious than any other in the world. Did you notice? It paid winner Koepka $2 million.

When I started caddying at pro Stan Staszowski’s Green Woods Country Club around 1945 with my brother Matt, I was about 12 years old and World War II had just ended. I was in it (caddying) for the dough. So was Matt, but he became immediately hooked on the game. I liked baseball better. Matt became an excellent player, caddies were allowed to play nine holes on Monday mornings. Matt never missed, using borrowed clubs and playing with three or four other caddies. Me? No thanks. I usually slept in on Monday mornings.

But I learned about golf and men and working in spite of myself and when I grew to man-sized, and became a sports writer for the Hartford Courant, darned if, after a few years as a do-everything sports reporter and desk man, I found myself covering baseball. And lots of golf.

Matt grew tall and never let go his love for golf. He became a scratch player and when he served for over two years in England, working for the Torrington Company, he managed to play all the famous links courses in England and Scotland. Returning stateside, he scheduled yearly golf junkets back to Europe to revisit the courses he loved to play.

During the GHO, after he came back to Torrington, we would often visit or talk on the phone, discussing certain players, or the championship in general. Matt died in 2004.

Now that I’m “getting along,” I admit I miss those discussions, but I find other golfers or one-time golfers – including former colleagues in the sports department at the Courant — for golf chit chat.

And, as Lanny Wadkins said one day on the GHO practice tee, “yes, I’ve got stories to tell.” And he proceeded to tell one, about his first tour victory, which came against none other

than Arnold Palmer in a playoff. (A fine thank-you. Wadkins had attended Wake Forest University on an Arnold Palmer Golf Scholarship.)

Wadkins went forward from there to have a fine career, winning 21 PGA tournaments including the 1992 GHO.

Some of the interviews I remember best from the 49 GHOs I covered were with Jack Nicklaus, Palmer, Greg Norman, Gary Player (after a press aide, trying to be accommodating, gave him a gin and tonic. A non-drinker, Gary gulped it down thinking it was water and staggered around for the rest of the day. It was hilarious to hear him tell about it.)

But there are scores of other memories with lesser golfers who were members of lesser fields and all of them were entertaining. Another day, maybe, or possibly in a book of GHO memories.