SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — James Nicholas started his U.S. Open day here on the sandy, wind-battered South Fork just as Jones, Hogan and Nicklaus used to start theirs.
By slipping on Meta glasses.
At 3:55 a.m.
“I have a YouTube channel,” said Nicholas, 29, a Scarsdale, N.Y., native who has 33,000 subscribers on the video platform, and another 163,000 followers on Instagram. “I’m trying to film some behind the scenes of what it’s like to play in the U.S. Open. I put them on and talked to myself, talked to the fans and try to share this with everybody else.”
Nicholas rose before the roosters on account of his first-off starting time at the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. By 4:25, he was in the shower. At 4:40, he was out the door. By 5, he was on property and digging into some breakfast. By 5:20, he was warming up. And at 6:35 sharp, he was on the 1st tee alongside Taylor Montgomery and Caleb Surratt. Time to “ball out,” Nicholas said later, “and that’s sort of what I always say no matter what the round is.”
And ball out he did, posting a four-birdie 71 that, on a tough, breezy morning, briefly gave him the clubhouse lead.
Nicholas, who plies his trade on the Korn Ferry Tour by way of Winged Foot (where he played his junior golf) and Yale University (his college golf), is fortunate to be here at all.
In the second of his two rounds in his U.S. Open final qualifier earlier this month, Nicholas was in a bad state on the 5th hole after he’d blocked not one but two tee shots into shrubs right of the fairway. The first ball was a goner and the second one also appeared to be — that was until a friend of Nicholas’s, who was walking in the small gallery, spotted a Titleist emblazoned with an American flag deep in the foliage. That allowed Nicholas to take an unplayable instead of re-teeing and almost assuredly saved him at least a stroke. That shot proved deeply consequential because, at round’s end, Nicholas’s 140 total (68-72) landed him in a four-way playoff. When he won that, he had punched his ticket to his second consecutive U.S. Open.
Nicholas is a world-class golfer and equally exceptional sharer, engager and poster. He takes his social flock with him nearly everywhere he goes: the course, the range, the gym, the locker room, his honeymoon. In February, after winning his first-ever Korn Ferry title, Nicholas took to Instagram to share his P&L for the week: $1,050 for flights, $42.98 for a massage, an $18,000 outlay for his caddie’s bonus, etc. That video has been viewed 7.2 million times.
Nicholas’s early-morning, Meta-aided shoot from Shinnecock is sure to also get some looks. The thrust of it? “I’m playing Round 1 of the U.S. Open,” Nicholas said. “Let’s just go have a great day. I get to do this. I get to do all the hectic travel to be here. I get to come out here and play in incredibly tough conditions. I get to play one of the best golf courses in the world. Instead of saying, I have to, and sort of setting that perspective. Then looking my family in the face as we are walking through the gates — look at this, guys, we’re playing in the United States Open.”
Well, he was for two holes, anyway, at which point play was suspended by a cloud of fog that enveloped the course. When the horn blew, Nicholas scooted to the range, thinking the break would be a quick one. But 15 minutes turned into 30, and 30 turned into … well, it was hard to know. Wanting to conserve energy, Nicholas retreated to the clubhouse to spend time with his wife, mother and a couple of friends. “It’s the U.S. Open, but you’ve just got to relax and hang out,” he said. Play finally resumed at 9:05.
You couldn’t blame Nicholas if he felt overwhelmed by the moment. But he didn’t, he said, instead choosing to embrace the grandness of the stage with a nothing-to-lose attitude. “When I get on Korn Ferry and I play week in and week out there, sometimes you doubt yourself,” he said. “But out here you almost have like this, ‘Let’s just send it and see what happens.’ You put less pressure on yourself, put less stress.”
That approach worked for Nicholas a year ago at beastly Oakmont, where he opened with a 69 to grab a share of 6th place. But flying too close to the sun, he said, got in his head. “[In] Round 2 I struggled because I put all that pressure onto myself, and you have expectation.” He signed for a 78, then played the weekend in 75-77 to finish T61.
Enter Nicholas’s mental coach, Joe Perron, who schooled Nicholas on the fear of failure. “It’s something that I struggle with,” Nicholas said. “It’s like I want to do so well. Once I put myself in position, you get scared, you have this fear of failure.”
On Thursday, Nicholas showed no such trepidation, shaking off two double-bogeys to stay squarely in the hunt. Another test awaits Friday, and, should he pass it, he’ll face an even bigger exam this weekend. Maybe you’ll spot Nicholas on NBC. If not, try YouTube.
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