SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — The final day of practice for the U.S. Open brought a most unfamiliar sight Wednesday morning at Shinnecock Hills: The nine USGA flags atop the grandstand behind the 18th green, and the large American flag atop the century-old clubhouse, hung limply.
Just not for very long. Wind at Shinnecock Hills
is as inevitable as traffic along the Montauk Highway from the infamous “trade parade.”And that's what has everyone nervous — not
only the players, but USGA officials in charge of the course — going into the 126th edition of the golf's second-oldest championship.
“Problematic,” is how John Bodenhamer, the chief competitions officer at the USGA, described excessive wind. “This year I believe the wind will impact our championship unlike many others.”
Adding to the concern are the previous two trips to Shinnecock Hills, when the wind and warmth dried out the course in a New York minute and caused the greens to be borderline unplayable.
It got so bad on the final day in 2004 that no one broke par and 28 players failed to break 80. Treacherously slick greens and questionable pin positions on Saturday in 2018 kept the last 44 players to tee off from matching par. That was the day Phil Mickelson hit a moving ball on the 13th green to avoid it rolling back into the fairway.
The USGA now is taking extreme caution. Bodenhamer said the greens would be roughly 10 1/2 on the Stimpmeter — the original plan was between 11 and 12 — and the course is being kept as soft as possible to get through the next four days.
“I would say the course is about as enjoyable as I've seen it,” said Justin Rose, who joins Adam Scott as the only players to have competed at Shinnecock the last two years.
“There's not many golf courses you could turn up to on any given week and play championship golf, and Shinnecock is one of them,” he said. “I think I like the way the approach is this year. ... Potentially what I'm hearing is some slightly different protocols this week make sense to me. And I think it's set up to be a great tournament.”
It all starts to unfold on Thursday at 6:35 a.m. — 10 minutes earlier than a normal start so the grounds crew has time to douse the greens with water before the afternoon wave — with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, Nos. 1 and 2 in the world, both start in the morning wave on opposite sides of the course. Scheffler is bidding for the career Grand Slam with the U.S. Open the only major title he is lacking.
Scheffler first picked up a golf club in his native New Jersey. He moved to Dallas when he was 6 and honed his game in the wind at Royal Oaks.
But there is wind, and there is wind at Shinnecock Hills, situated between the Great Peconic Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.
Bodenhamer said the expectation was for wind in the 20s mph Thursday with gusts nearly twice that strong throughout the afternoon. The forecast was less wind on Friday, then wind strong and from a different direction Saturday, then a bit calmer on Sunday.
Bodenhamer said a key strategy in setting up the course is to be “tough but fair.”
“We could brutalize this place the next few days if we wanted to. That’s not what we’re about,” he said. “We really want it to be fair, and we want it to be what Shinnecock Hills has always been. It will be tough enough.”
Scott, who is playing in his 100th consecutive major, considers this course among his favorite in the world. He has yet to see Shinnecock Hills on the weekend, at least during a U.S. Open. The Australian knows what to expect, and he liked what he had seen so far.
“It looks like they’re being cautious at the moment. They know the wind is going to be a factor this week,” Scott said. “Hopefully, we can get the greens to firm up over the weekend, and we’ll see some of the greatness of Shinnecock where the shots in are so important to hit these small areas, and then you’ll get a great champion.”
The one statistic that speaks to Shinnecock Hills are the three players who have managed to finish a U.S. Open under par in the previous five U.S. Opens — Raymond Floyd in 1986, Retief Goosen in 2004, Mickelson as the runner-up in 2004.
Brooks Koepka in 2018 at Shinnecock is the last U.S. Open champion to win with a score over par.
“The Shinnecock links are almost perfect as they present nearly every kind of natural obstacle the most exacting and fanatical golfer could ever desire,” Bodenhamer said, pausing before adding he didn't actually come up with that.
“That comes from the New York Herald on Aug. 30, 1891, when this place was founded,” he said. “I don't think a whole lot has changed.”
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