UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. - John and Janeo Greller stood on the outskirts of Chambers Bay Golf Course in the Sunday twilight, holding hands. John goes by "Bear," but despite the tough-guy nickname, he's one of those men you'd call an old softie, evidenced at this moment by the tears welling up in his eyes. A quintessential matriarch, Janeo couldn't stop smiling if she tried, surrounded by their children and grandchildren and other family friends, all smiling along with her.
They're good people, the Grellers, former teachers from the Midwest who are as affable as they are warmhearted. They're the type of people who could attend a golf tournament and walk through the gallery turning strangers into new friends.
Though, they weren't supposed to be at this tournament.
This week's U.S. Open Championship featured steep, rolling hills covered by wispy strands of fescue. Walking the golf course was an arduous task for even the most physically fit spectators. It would be damned near impossible for the Grellers.
Bear is suffering from Parkinson's disease, forcing him to walk, slowly, with a cane. He's also undergone two kidney transplants and has lived with Type 1 diabetes for the past 41 years. They knew those ailments would be no match for the treacherous Chambers Bay terrain.
Not that they didn't want to attend. After all, this wasn't just any golf course. This is where Michael, one of their four children, started caddying eight years ago. That first day, he was enlisted with the task of looping nine holes for a friend. The friend reported back to the caddie-master that Michael had performed admirably, and just like that, he had a side job, carrying the bag for amateurs who hacked away on the course during his summer months away from teaching sixth grade.
From there, the story has quickly become golf legend.
Michael caddied about 40 rounds at Chambers Bay, including for Justin Thomas at the 2010 U.S. Amateur. "It would be the coolest thing in the world to somehow caddie here in the U.S. Open," Thomas recalled him saying at the time. "I'll wait around the course if I have to." The next year, Michael was on the bag at nearby Gold Mountain, helping Jordan Spieth to a second U.S. Junior Amateur title.
When Spieth turned pro a year later, he rekindled that connection. Michael took a sabbatical from teaching, and the rest is history, as they say. Together, they'd won five professional tournaments entering this past week, including, of course, the recent Masters.
The entire journey started at Chambers Bay, but the property's significance to Michael doesn't end there. Two years ago, he married his longtime girlfriend Ellie right here at the course, joined by so many relatives and friends. Even Spieth eschewed a guaranteed-money event to attend the ceremony.
So yes, this course has reserved a special place in the hearts of every Greller family member. Knowing the entire clan would attend these festivities, Bear and Janeo made the trip this week, babysitting for grandchildren nearby while pausing only to watch Michael at work on TV.
Before Sunday's final round, though, their daughter, Katie, prodded her folks to attend in person. Michael would be caddying for Spieth in the day's penultimate pairing, tied for the lead entering the round. Besides, she implored them, it was Father's Day, and there was no better way to spend it than at the U.S. Open.
"He jumped all over that," Janeo said while smiling toward Bear. "It surprised me, because with his Parkinson's and other health issues, unknowns and stress are really ..."
Her voice trails off. The truth is, they didn't know what kind of effect an entire day at the course might have on Bear. They hadn't planned on attending in person, but for parents who were so supportive of their son when he decided to leave a full-time teaching job to caddie for a teenager, they wanted to show that same support now.
And so armed with tickets to a hospitality suite that would eliminate the need to traverse the course, Bear and Janeo joined their family on a site that was already special to them.
"It was a great gift," Bear said in the Sunday twilight, one hand shaking on his cane, the other still interlocked with his wife's.
They watched as Spieth bogeyed the first hole, quickly falling behind. Fretted when he made the turn, still trailing to Dustin Johnson. Beamed with excitement when he made birdie on the 16th hole, turning that deficit into a three-stroke lead. Gritted their teeth when he double-bogeyed the next hole, falling into a share of that lead.
They kept a close eye on Michael as the cameras showed him talking to Spieth the entire way to the 18th tee. They immediately recognized this was the teacher in him, still trying to keep his pupil positive in the face of adversity.
"I was getting in his ear as much as I could," Michael would later disclose. "I told him to take some deep breaths and re-center himself."
Spieth did just that. His second shot found the green at the par 5 and he two-putted for birdie. Ten minutes later, in a surreal scene that will be replayed forever in the lowlights of major championship blunders, Johnson three-putted from 12 feet. It ensured Spieth had won his second straight major title, and gave Michael a full-circle journey on a course where he'd once had to pass a tryout for the caddie-master.
For Bear Greller, a proud father on Father's Day who isn't supposed to get too stressed, the win and the journey and images of his son's risk paying off once again were enough to bring tears to his eyes in the twilight.
"Parkinson's is not a nice disease," said Janeo, that smile momentarily vanishing for the first time. "For him, it's manifested in emotional frailty and some cognitive issues and no stamina. We'll pay for this. We'll be laying low for the rest of the week."
To which Bear immediately interjected: "It'll be worth it. It'll be worth every moment."
He hadn't expected this Father's Day gift, hadn't planned on attending the tournament and watching one of his son's dreams come true. This wasn't just about the win, though. It was about supporting family, being there for Michael, just as they always have.
"Life isn't about winning and losing," Bear said before ambling away toward the exit. "It's about the journey along the way. I'm more interested in character and integrity and hard work. He's evidence of that."