It's no mere coincidence that somebody named Geoff won the US Open yesterday.

My Dad came down to New York for Father's Day weekend on Saturday afternoon, and my brother and I treated him to a Saturday night Shark Show followed by dinner, and on Sunday we treated him to breakfast at his favorite New York diner before we all drove up to Emily's parents' house in Westport, CT.

We had a golf match to play. The 3 Stevens men versus the Hall men, Emily's brother, Daniel, and her father, Bill. It was hot and hazy, but we didn't tee off on the Stratford 9-hole, par 3 course until 4pm. The Halls started out strong, with both of their first shots landing on the green, while the Stevens clan did not look good. My tee shot went straight down the fairway, but both Dad's and Nick's took a sharp, grounding turn to the left, an easy ground ball to the short stop.

The Halls were up by 2 holes with 3 to play, and then my putting game decided to come to life (or rather, it decided to give birth, as I never really had a putting game until yesterday). I sunk an improbable, sloping 25-foot put to win hole #6, and then on hole 8 I sunk a curving 20-footer. Nick darn near fainted from shock, and I couldn't really believe it myself. I guess this new set of clubs I got for Christmas are working out so far. I just needed to play with them a few times to get used to them. And my short-range chipping game, where I usually have at most a 50% success rate of chipping the ball up into the air and onto the green, suddenly found me today. I usually end up hitting grounders or knee high line drives that fly 20 yards over the green or fall 10 yards short, but today, my friends, I had "the touch."

I wasn't teeing off very well for most of the day, instead depending on my irons to regain the distance on my second shot, but on the last hole, I used a 3-iron off the tee and my shot flew straight as an arrow for 150 yards, landing on the far left side of the green. Hallelujah! I should have parred the hole, but I lasered my second putt too hard and it bounced over the cup. Still we won the last hole, came from behind, and stole the match from the Hall fellows.

It was a good day for the golfing Geoffs on the links this Sunday, except mt performance might have been even more stunning than Geoff Ogilvy's.