U.S. Open week at Shinnecock is supposed to belong to the pros, but Fore Play set up shop on Long Island with a lit-up nighttime range, a Chevy bowtie on everything, and a simple ask: stick one in the cup and walk away a legend. The crew teed up the night with predictions on whether anyone would actually pull it off.
Event preview from the on-site setup, with the host calling his shot on whether tonight's the night for an ace.
It did not take long for the chaos to start. The opening salvo featured one swing that literally got onto the clubhouse roof and another that ended up the second-closest of the night — a tone-setter that told everyone in attendance the contestants were either going to be heroes or laughingstocks, no in-between.
The electric opening sequence: one ball on the roof, the next nearly perfect.
Then came the gut punches. One contestant in a Shinnecock crewneck watched a ball put the brakes on right at the cup — the kind of lip-out that makes grown men question every life choice. Another rolled a putt clean past the hole on the venue TV, prompting Fore Play to publicly demand Adidas ship Frank Walker a new pair of shoes, because clearly the footwear was the problem and not the stroke.
The heart-stopper: a near-miss that stopped dead at the lip.
Mr. Borrelli took his crack at it fueled by the new ONE Brands Reese's Layered Bar, swinging away under the inflatable light tubes like a man who knew the cameras were rolling. No ace, but the showmanship counted for something — and the format guarantees nobody who got the pin surrounded walked home empty-handed, because Adidas was handing out fresh golf shoes to the closest darts of the night.
No hole-in-one, but the closest-to-the-pin winner gets congratulated with a fresh pair of Adidas.
That's the whole magic of this thing. The actual U.S. Open is happening down the road with the best players on earth grinding for a trophy, and meanwhile Fore Play built a parallel universe where regular dudes in Shinnecock pullovers get one swing, one moment, and either a roof story or a free pair of shoes to show for it. Still waiting on that first ace — but the misses are honestly more fun.