Lucas Glover, U.S. Open champion

I understand that most of the country wanted Phil Mickelson or David Duval.

Standing behind the 17th green today at Bethpage, watching Duval birdie the 16th hole in the distance while Phil was playing the par-3 17th trying to stay even with Lucas Glover, the roars for Duval and Mickelson were enormous.

More than once, the bleacher crowd broke into a chant of "Let's go Phil, let's go Phil!."

Lucas Glover was the other guy.

And now he's the U.S. Open champion.

If you don't know much about him, trust me, you'd like him. It's tough not to.

Sure, he doesn't smile a lot and he keeps his head down while he's playing golf but he earned this moment and a lot of people are happy for him.

He's not who you may think he is. Sure, he's a son of the south, living in Greenville, S.C., but he's a man of the world. Books. Wine. Music. Those are things Glover cares about.

Not as much as he cares about Clemson athletics but he lives in a big world.

And he's funny. Quietly so.

After signing his scorecard Monday afternoon, Glover was being escorted around the back of the Bethpage clubhouse to the 18th green to receive the Open trophy. When he saw his agent, Mac Barnhardt standing on the porch, Glover smiled and stuck his tongue out at his manager.

All in good fun.

As his caddie, Don Cooper said, "We knew how good he was. He proved it.

"You'll see a lot of smiles from here on out."