Shinnecock Hills is a study in restraint and attrition that has spent more than a century bringing the world’s finest golfers to heel. When the US Open returns here for a sixth time on Thursday, the current crop will once again face a rugged coastal masterpiece where calamity lurks around every corner and mistakes are punished with uncommon severity.
The William Flynn-designed layout, one of the United States Golf Association’s five founding clubs, is a 7,440-yard track of rare beauty and menace revered as one of the purest tests in championship golf. Three distinct clusters of holes form a rough triangle across the property, exposing players to shifting winds from different directions throughout the round. With gusts forecast to exceed 40mph at times, even players who know Shinnecock well acknowledge that controlling trajectory and accepting adversity will be every bit as important as making birdies.
The biggest storyline centers on Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No 1 golfer who arrives with a chance to complete the career grand slam. Having already won two Masters titles to go with the PGA Championship and Open Championship last year, the 29-year-old American needs only the US Open to join one of golf’s most select groups alongside Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.
Any perceived dip in Scheffler’s form is largely relative. He has already won once this season, recorded seven top-five finishes and remains a fixture near the top of the leaderboard. “I feel like maybe I’ve just been a touch dull,” Scheffler said this week. “By no means is it a bad year. Is it up to the play I’ve had the previous couple of years? Probably not, but it’s not far off.”
Scheffler insists the career slam itself is not a motivating factor, but the significance of the moment is undeniable. Just one year after McIlroy completed the set at Augusta, Scheffler has an opportunity to follow him into the club and further cement himself as the dominant player of his generation.
Standing in his way is a field packed with contenders and a windswept course that has been rattling champions’ vulnerabilities since the 1890s. McIlroy, who successfully defended his Masters title in April, arrives as perhaps Scheffler’s most obvious challenger. The Northern Irishman has become one of the game’s most consistent US Open performers, posting six top-10 finishes since missing the cut at Shinnecock in 2018. His approach to the track is simple: discipline.
“This course demands so much patience,” McIlroy said on Tuesday. “It can really lure you into taking on things that you probably shouldn’t.”
Europe enters the week with unusual momentum. McIlroy’s Masters triumph was followed by Aaron Rai’s victory at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, marking the first time Europeans have captured the season’s opening two majors in the modern four-major era. England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, has been among the most consistent players on the tour this year, collecting three victories and arriving fresh off a runner-up finish at the Canadian Open.
Fitzpatrick would happily see the screws tightened further. “I don’t particularly like playing birdie-fests,” he said after watching course staff water parts of the layout during practice rounds.
The fear for players is that Shinnecock’s reputation for brutality and dread is on merit. When Brooks Koepka won here in 2018 at one over par, the championship descended into controversy as greens became so fast and firm that balls struggled to stay in place. Phil Mickelson famously incurred a penalty after striking a moving ball on a green during a chaotic third round. Organizers have attempted to avoid a repeat by keeping the course greener and softer ahead of this week’s expected winds.
The scoring history illustrates the challenge. In five previous US Open tournaments at Shinnecock, only three players have finished under par, while Retief Goosen’s four-under total in 2004 remains the lowest winning score in a US Open held at the course.
Koepka arrives after a hand injury forced him to withdraw from the final round of the Canadian Open last week, though the two-time US Open champion has indicated he expects to play. The 36-year-old arrives with a proven advantage on a course where he claimed the trophy in 2018, becoming just the third man since the second world war and the seventh in history to defend America’s national championship successfully.
Beyond the championship race, Shinnecock’s return places a spotlight on its place in American golf lore. The course sits on land intertwined with the history of the Shinnecock Nation, whose members helped build and maintain the layout for generations. It was also the site of a landmark moment in 1896 when John Shippen, a 16-year-old Black golfer and clubmaker, and Shinnecock tribe member Oscar Bunn competed in the US Open despite objections from several British professionals. Shippen became the first Black player in championship history, while he and Bunn are believed to have been the first US-born competitors in the event.
History gives Shinnecock its meaning, but difficulty gives it its mystique. The world’s best arrive knowing they are competing on one of golf’s most storied stages, but also one of its most unforgiving. If Shinnecock bares its teeth over the coming days as expected, by Sunday night the champion may simply be the player who has suffered the least.
