PEABODY, Mass. — When Gene Sauers won last year’s United States Senior Open, it was his first victory of any kind in 14 years. His reward was a place in this year’s United States Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin.
So on June 14, the night before the first round, Gene Sauers settled in at a table for dinner with Dustin Johnson. And he listened as Johnson, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, described the course they would play the next day as “a monster.”
“I thought, if it’s a monster for him, then what does that make it for me?