One final piece to the U.S. Open puzzle has been revealed: how did Jordan Spieth react when he won his second straight major championship?
Fox cameras were not there when Spieth witnessed Dustin Johnson's three-putt. But Darren Carroll was, even if the moment proved a little awkward.
Freelance photographer Carroll's work has appeared for years in Golf Digest, Golf World, and Sports Illustrated, but last week he was working for the USGA at Chambers Bay. Situated at the scoring trailer when Spieth walked off the 18th green holding a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson, Carroll snapped a few shots of Spieth signing his card before the 21-year-old left the trailer to greet family. Spieth and caddie Michael Greller then returned to the trailer to watch Johnson's eagle putt and didn't exactly invite anyone along.
*Photo by Darren Carroll. *
Carroll equates his role to that of a wedding photographer, only with a USGA All-Access badge. Since no Fox television camera was in sight to catch a possible historic moment-- ala Rocco watching Tiger sink the tying putt at Torrey Pines or a player emotionally embracing his spouse ala Justin Rose or Geoff Ogilvy -- Carroll knew he might be the only one documenting golf history. He had to push.
"So I took a breath, opened the door to the scoring trailer and walked in," Carroll writes on his blog. "Spieth stared straight ahead at the monitor on a table in front of him, but Greller shot me a look. I knew right then that I needed to tread lightly, so I headed straight for the other side of a partition in the trailer where I couldn't see either one of them—and they could no longer see me."
The resulting images, dipped in sepia, give us a sense of Spieth's emotions in winning what was a true team effort. The many behind-the-scenes moments with the trophy and Spieth's real father -- not the one mistakenly shown on TV -- encapsulate just how much winning meant to the 21-year-old.
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