Boston firefighter makes the cut at the U.S. Open

It’s not often that a New York crowd will cheer for someone from Boston. However, hundreds of fans at Shinnecock were clapping and cheering when Matt Parziale birded the 18th hole to make the cut at the 118th U.S. Open.

The Boston firefighter is one of twenty amateurs in the field at Shinnecock this week and after a solid approach to his final hole on Friday, the 30-year old faced an 18 foot putt to finish 36 holes at seven over par and secure a place in the weekend.

Starting just outside the right side of the hole, it never looked like missing.

Despite the Boston-New York rivalry, fans in the 18th grandstand stood to cheer and acknowledge Parziale's round.

At the time, the birdie moved the American inside the cut line.

“I saw the projected cut on the boards, it started at nine, then went to eight” said Parziale after his round. “I thought if it's going that direction, I don't want to be as close -- you don't want to come in at eight and then all of a sudden have it move to seven. So making the putt for seven there was pretty big for me.”

By the time play came to end an hour or so later, Paziale was one of only three amateurs to make the cut, earning himself a 10.24am third round tee time alongside 2015 European Tour rookie of the year, Byeong Hun An.

As for whether or not he will be able to rely on his firefighting skills to tame Shinnecock over the week, the Bostonian said “being a firefighter is complete chaos. And this is more controlled. You're by yourself. Firefighting, you're part of a team. I would never want the two to cross. They're both separate, and I like keeping them that way.”