IT'S US OPEN WEEK

I try to write before each of professional golf's 4 majors. The US Open is that tournament designed to be the ultimate examination that tests the skills required to master all facets of the game. It is that one tournament that humbles the very best players in the world at least once every round, if not more.

We wake up this morning with 36 players needing to complete their first round before having to immediately begin round 2. Other than Hayden Buckley and Thomas Detry, every name with a red number next to it is a name you have seen before. Often there are more of those names on Day 1.

Torrey Pines is one big golf course with greens that can humiliate you. It has me on numerous occasions. To get to Torrey, players have to pass a number of rigorous examinations. That's what makes it great to see names other than those you see every week qualify.

In the airline industry's US Open, names like Kansas City, Milwaukee, Boise and Savannah all qualified. But, some less recognized names like Northwest Arkansas and Huntsville qualified too. They are names you recognize, just not the names found on the tee sheet in the majors. These are names that have been humbled along the way.

Like I wrote in the Master's post, you can lose it on Day 1 but you cannot win it. Each of these airports have the attributes to be bigger dots on the airline map than they have been. And there are more, just like there is another kid that is really good and waiting to replace you.

My thinking is that 2q'21 marks the weekend. One should not only be happy to make the cut and play the weekend. It is now about staying close to the leaders and retaining all of that new service won before 2q'21.

We all love to root for the underdog. These markets are not underdogs, but rather the next wave of talent to be discovered and not relegated to just the service they received yesterday. It is fun to have new names to root for.