Even the happiest of days feel incomplete when your loved ones aren’t around you. The same is the case with Justin Lower! Especially on the largely celebrated annual Father’s Day, which tends not to be his “favorite day of the year.” After all, grief is the most complex of emotions, and while it is a perpetual struggle, some days tend to be harder than others.

Lower lost his father, Tim, and his 10-year-old brother, Chris, to a car accident when he was only a 15-year-old boy. The accident happened on March 26, 2005, and they were on their way to pick up Lower from the golf course. The golfer shared that he still thinks about it every day, it could be for a minute or an hour.

Lower’s father struggled with a long history of alcohol abuse, a fact that he concealed from the PGA Tour pro till the day he died. It was later discovered that on the day of the accident, Tim Lower was driving with more than three times the legal limit for alcohol in his system. This became the precursor to their doom when Senior Lower wrecked his car in Marshallville, not far from the American Legion.

Talking about how the joyful Father’s Day has turned into “a day of remembrance” for him, Lower said, “I don’t really talk to anyone else. I try to spend time with my mom because I know it’s a difficult day for her, too.” Lower’s father played a major role in his eventual development in golf.

Despite not being really vocal, he made sure to show up for his son. The young and naive Justin Lower also understood all his father’s non-vocal signs. Describing an instance, he said, “I knew if he crossed his arms, I wasn’t playing well and he’d get this ‘get your head out of your ass’ look on his face.”

While Lower might not be able to rejoice in the longstanding Father’s Day tradition at the U.S. Open, will his U.S. Open dream find its storybook ending this season?

Justin Lower’s U.S. Open dream on Father’s Day weekend

Lower has dreamt a dream for long: a storybook ending to his fate with the U.S. Open when he wins the major on Father’s Day weekend, instead of witnessing the familial bonds of the major in solitude.

Talking about his longstanding dream, the PGA Tour pro once said, “The U.S. Open would be one of the coolest ones to win. It’s an open format. They set up the course so hard. For it to be one Father’s Day, and win that tournament, that would be your storybook ending for me.” The 124th US Open marks his first-ever major tournament. The golfer was very emotional when he talked about it, and said, “It’s kind of everything.”

The 35-year-old stands at T57 with a score of 10 over par at the end of Round 3 of the event. Even an impeccable performance might not do much to bridge the 17-stroke gap he currently has with the lead and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau. It seems this edition of the U.S. Open might not do much to give Lower the storybook ending he deserves.