SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Stand at the 13th tee at Shinnecock Hills, the uppermost point on one of America’s oldest golf clubs. Look out at the spread of the holes spilling down and away from this point, the windmill in the distance, the clouds strolling across the impossibly blue sky above.
It’s all gorgeous … as long as you don’t have to play the damn thing.
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Shinnecock is the most revered and fearsome test in major championship golf, a windswept brute capable of bringing anyone and everyone in the field to their knees. It’s one of America’s true legacy clubs, hosting the second U.S. Open in 1896 and joining with four other old-money institutions to form the United States Golf Association. This is as elite as golf gets, from every measure, and anybody who hoists the trophy here has earned it.
“If everything is going the way everyone wants it in terms of weather, setup, I think it’s the best championship test in the country,” Rory McIlroy said earlier this week. “I think it tests all aspects of the game: driving, iron play, you need to have your wits about you on the greens.”
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How tough is Shinnecock? The course has hosted five U.S. Opens prior to this one. In the last four, only three of the 624 players finished under par. (The first didn’t use par as a metric.) Raymond Floyd, winner in 1986, finished at -1, and 2004 winner Retief Goosen finished at -4. And in irrefutable proof that the Golf Gods hate him, Phil Mickelson also finished under par at a Shinnecock U.S. Open, carding a -2 in 2004 … when he lost.
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So what makes Shinnecock so difficult? Sure, the greens are tiny, the fairways deceptive, the rough fearsome … but the real issue is the wind coming off the nearby Atlantic. Swirling in all directions, gusting at over-the-speed-limit speeds, the wind can easily overwhelm this course.
“The wind makes the challenge here, whereas (2025 host) Oakmont the course is just the challenge. It doesn’t matter if it’s windy or not,” Adam Scott said this week. “I think the beauty of this course is obviously around the greens, and the options, and the situations you’ll find yourself in that you really don’t plan to be in, and how you manage that and compose yourself to get it around the course and get it in the house.”
The wind affects every stage of the game. The fairways at Shinnecock are wide, but the wicked crosswinds can push even an on-target shot into the rough. The greens dry out quickly, and particularly on the elevated ones, the ball can get blown right off the green. That’s what prompted the USGA to do a controversial mid-round watering of the course in 2004, and what caused Zach Johnson to declare that the course was “lost” in 2018.
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What Shinnecock demands, then, is the ability to deliver on shots … and to keep your head while doing so. That’s easy to say, much tougher to do, even for the game’s best.
“If you’re executing and you’re hitting the ball in the right spots, you can play this golf course. I think the minute you start hitting the ball offline, you are like, Man, how do I even finish this hole?”, Scottie Scheffler said Tuesday. “Poor tee shots, hitting it into the rough in this fescue, it’s going to be virtually impossible to get the ball on the green.”
Here’s the good news for fans, and very, very bad news for the players: the wind will play a starring role this weekend. Thursday afternoon in particular will be wicked, with gusts nearing 40 mph. That’s nearing unplayable territory, so we’ll see which players use it as an excuse, and which use it as fuel.
Wind forecast at Shinnecock
“Looks like we’re going to get some pretty heavy wind, for a couple of days anyway,” McIlroy said. “If you can get your ball to the middle of the greens here, and just putt to the corners wherever the flags are going to be, that’s never going to be a bad strategy.”
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The USGA, which has a rep for pushing players to, and beyond, their limits, both of skill and of patience, is keenly aware of the forecast. And despite its well-deserved rep for creating carnage, the USGA is trying, this year, to be a little more considerate.
“We could brutalize this place the next few days if we wanted to,” USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said. “That’s not what we’re about. We really want it to be fair, and we want it to be what Shinnecock Hills has always been. It will be tough enough.”
That’s exactly what fans want … and exactly what the players fear.
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