If You're Trying To Decide Who To Root For During The British Open, Look No Further Than This Factory Worker

HOYLAKE, England — The legend of the English factory worker, John Singleton, was born in the middle of the American cornfield that was home to Rend Lake College, where nobody was surprised that Singleton needed to borrow wedges to make his jump down from a forklift and into this week’s Open Championship field. A working-class kid playing a rich man’s game in a foreign country, Singleton always leaned on the generosity of those close to him at the junior college off Interstate 57 in Ina, Illinois. “If half my clubs were out of my bag, John had them,” his former Rend Lake coach, Dave Smith, recalled by phone. “If my driver was out of my bag, it was in England.” Singleton’s teammate and roommate, Lucas Cromeenes, said every member of the Rend Lake teams from 2004 and 2005 could tell stories of their woods and irons making the trip across the Atlantic in Singleton’s bag. “John still has so many of my shirts over there in England because he never had anything cool enough to wear when we went out,” Cromeenes said by phone. “In the three years we lived together, I probably spent $2,000 on food for him. We were like brothers. He had no way to get around, so I’d give him my car and money and tell him to go buy food for the both of us.”

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Cool.  Really cool.  It’s the type of stuff you’d only see in a sports movies but this time it’s happening in a real life.  A washed up golfer now working as a forklift operator in England who once had dreams of competing for one of golf’s most coveted trophies is getting the chance to do just that.  If that’s not something you can root for then I don’t know what to tell you.  This is as common man as it gets.  Obviously the storyline that’s going to dominate this week and weekend is Tiger Woods playing.  He’s always the story and will continue to be the story as long as he decides to step on a golf course.  There’s no getting around it.  But this John Singleton thing is awesome.  Will it be an absolute miracle if he makes the cut?  Yep but that’s part of the fun.  And it’s even cooler that the boss at the factory he works gave everybody Thursday off so they can go cheer on their fellow factory worker.  If there’s any such thing as a higher deity pulling the strings of life, it’ll let John Singleton make the cut at the British Open and play the weekend.