It’s a feeling you simply have to experience.
I’m talking about the roar, that noise you hear when an approach is stuck or a putt is holed. It rattles the grandstands, it spills out across the course and it gives everyone on the property goosebumps.
There are all kinds of roars — a major championship roar, the Sunday roar, the Augusta roar. The first one I heard came during the third round at Chambers Bay. I was walking the back nine with the final grouping of Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, and word started to spread that Jason Day, battling vertigo, was making a move on Moving Day.
As I was walking down the 14th fairway and marveling at the picturesque view of the Puget Sound, the 6,000 fans in the grandstands at the 18th green erupted. I was hundreds of yards away, but I knew the reason for the roar: Day had birdied the home hole and moved into a tie for the lead.
That moment, that feeling, will stay with me forever.

This article appeared in the most recent issue of SI Golf+ Digital, our weekly e-magazine. Click here to read this week’s issue and sign up for a free subscription.