UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Daniel Summerhays is a family man and often talks about his young family, which includes four children under the age of 7. For his first few years on the PGA Tour, Summerhays and his wife, Emily, traveled to all the tournaments in a motor home, but they gave that up a couple of years ago. Now they fly and stay in hotels or rented homes near the golf venues.
“I still have the family with me, whether by bus, car, plane, boat,’’ Summerhays said. “The family is always with me — they’re a very important part of my life.’’
This week they’re staying in a nearby house and “trying to keep the kids from ruining everyone else’s valuables,’’ he said.
“So far, so good. We haven’t damaged anything yet ... clogged a toilet, but that’s fine, that can be fixed.’’
FINAU FANS: Tony Finau has his family with him also this week and although his older two kids are staying away from the course, his 2-month-old son “Tony Jr.’’ has been out on the course, being pushed in a stroller by Tony's father Kelepi and one of his cousins.
Finau has a large following with several relatives from the West Coast and a few from Utah. His brother, Gipper, who is 11 months younger and actually got Tony started playing golf, isn't here this week as he is playing in a tournament in North Carolina.
NOT SINCE 1989: Before Daniel Summerhays grabbed a share of the second-round lead for an hour or so Friday afternoon, the last time a native Utahn led a major golf tournament was in 1989, when Jay Don Blake led the U.S. Open midway through the third round at Oak Hill Golf Course in Rochester, N.Y.
Blake, who also had a share of the first-round lead, went to 4-under par with a birdie at No. 10, but fell back with three bogeys coming in and was in fourth place going into the fourth round, where he eventually finished 18th.
OPEN TO ALL: It’s called the U.S. Open, but the tournament may have more foreign players than any other tournament in the world.
Of the 156 golfers in the field, close to half are from other countries — 68 in all. South Africa and Australia have the most golfers with eight, followed by England and Scotland with six apiece and Japan and Korea with five apiece.
OPEN NOTES: The tournament had a scare when Jason Day went down on his final hole and had to lay on the ground for several minutes. It was called vertigo and dehydration, and on Friday night his status for Saturday was unknown . . . With the first hole playing as a 598-yard par-5, the yardage for the front nine was more than 4,000 yards for the first time in U.S. Open history . . .Tiger Woods shot a 76 and finished in second-to-last at 16-over 156. By missing the cut, Tiger Woods now has as many missed cuts in his career (14) as he has major tournament wins.
