When Shinnecock Hills Golf Club held the 2004 U.S. Open, only Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson finished the week under par. When the major returned in 2018, Brooks Koepka won with a score of 1 over.
As always, the USGA’s balancing act to create a difficult but “fair” test will be central to all other storylines to come out of this week’s U.S. Open, beginning Thursday in Southampton, N.Y.
USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said Wednesday that setting up a course with a certain winning score in mind is “not the way we think anymore.” The USGA neither lengthened the course nor narrowed the fairways. The governing body believes Shinnecock Hills can stand up to the best golfers in the world as it is — especially with steady winds with projected gusts of 30 mph off the Peconic Bay.
In fact, the USGA pivoted and prepared slower greens than usual due to how high the winds are expected to blow.
“We have pulled every lever that we can to make it fair,” Bodenhamer said. “Ultimately, we believe the forecast will be accurate. If it isn’t, then it will be what it will be.”
Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy said earlier in the week that “it’s a very, very fine line” to make a challenging U.S. Open layout that doesn’t teeter into unfair territory.
“It’s a very challenging golf course to begin with,” the Northern Irishman said. “The greens are pretty soft already … The firmer the green is, it almost makes the bump-and-runs a little easier. Sometimes the softness of the green actually makes the short game a little trickier and tougher. So firm and fast doesn’t always mean more difficult, just depending on the shots that you have.”
While McIlroy sets out for a seventh major title that would tie him with the likes of Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead, Scottie Scheffler gets his first opportunity to complete the career Grand Slam, 14 months after McIlroy did the same.
The World No. 1 earned the third leg of the Slam last July at the Open Championship. In typical Scheffler fashion, he brushed off the idea that a Slam raises the stakes or changes his approach at Shinnecock.
“When it comes to this golf tournament,” Scheffler said, “like I said, I’m going to step on the first tee and remind myself I’ve done everything I possibly could in order to play well, and now it’s just a matter of going out there and trying to execute and kind of going back to enjoying the competition versus feeling like you have to win for some reason.”
Koepka might have been among the handful of favorites entering this one after his triumph in 2018. But a nerve in his left hand “flared up” last week, he experienced numbness that affected his grip and he withdrew before the final round of the RBC Canadian Open.
On Tuesday, Koepka promised his hand was feeling better enough to play this week.
“I don’t think the grip strength is a 100%, but it’s good enough,” he said. “It’s fine. There’s no pain.”
The favorites after Scheffler and McIlroy are Spanish star Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Cameron Young. Six of the last seven U.S. Open champions were first-time major winners, including J.J. Spaun, who had 150-1 pre-championship odds last year.
Spaun had two putts to win the tournament at No. 18 and made the first, a 64-foot birdie bomb.
“I think USGA wants you to get every club dirty,” Spaun said. “That’s what they like to live by, and it’s going to be true. It’s a course where people aren’t going to run away with it. You can’t win it the first day, but you definitely can lose it.”
Of the 156 players in the field, 20 are amateurs and 68 went through qualifying events. Those lists include Miles Russell, who at 17 years old is the No. 1 junior golfer in the country and the youngest player in this U.S. Open.
“I was hitting balls next to Jordan Spieth the other day,” Russell said. “I looked up to him as a little guy. That’s just really cool. I think it’s probably even cooler for my parents. I think my dad was standing behind me. I think it kind of hits them more than it hits me, just because they see their kid hitting balls next to somebody they looked up to when they were little.”
