Andrew Johnston admits there isn\u2019t a great story behind the inception of his nickname, \u201cBeef.\u201d When he was 11- or 12-years-old, he grew out his curly hair, prompting the following ribbing from a friend: \u201cLook at you and your big head. [It looks] like it\u2019s a meat head.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMeat head\u201d became \u201cbeef head,\u201d which was then shortened to \u201cBeef.\u201d The nickname stuck.<\/p>\n
While the persona is fully embraced by the 27-year-old Englishman with an unruly beard, a love for the English Premier League\u2019s Arsenal Football Club and an unwavering hankering for barbecue, it took time for Johnston to learn to be himself on the golf course.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year I was out on tour, I didn\u2019t really know like if you had to be a certain way or if I could sort of be a bit more outgoing,\u201d Johnston said, standing outside of the Oakmont Country Club clubhouse Saturday morning after posting a 1-under 69 in the second round.<\/p>\n
He aced the 10th hole (and won a free car) at the 2015 BMW PGA Championship, which he celebrated by running off the tee box and chest bumping a friend. When he holed out for eagle on the 18th hole at the 2015 Scottish Open, he copied golfer and playing partner Miguel Angel Jimenez\u2019s signature dance move.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just being me and everyone seemed to like it,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThen my confidence kind of grew and then the personality kind of comes out a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
During one of the rain delays on Thursday, Johnston took selfies with fans and used the face-swap feature on Snapchat to place his beard on the faces of fans. The media and social media attention on Beef will only grow as the field shrinks.<\/p>\n
Through the first two rounds, Johnston\u2019s cumulative score was 4-over, putting him in a tie for 35th place and on the right side of the cut. He was eight strokes back of the leader, Dustin Johnson.<\/p>\n
A win, however unlikely, would be a memorable one for Beef and his ever-growing cult-like following. He recently told ESPN that he\u2019ll \u201cprobably be drunk for a week\u201d if he wins the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club this weekend.<\/p>\n
After his second round Saturday, he doubled down on his celebration speculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery true,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cWeek, minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Johnston admits there isn\u2019t a great story behind the inception of his nickname, \u201cBeef.\u201d When he was 11- or 12-years-old, he grew out his curly hair, prompting the following ribbing from a friend: \u201cLook at you and your big head. [It looks] like it\u2019s a meat head.\u201d\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[23],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/06\/freedbeef.jpg?fit=1200%2C782&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7unGv-5i","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usopen2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}