The US Open is the most demanding test in golf, and this year’s host course, Shinnecock Hillsis known for frustrating and disappointing the best players in the world. In 2018, Brooks Koepka shot one over par to win at Shinnecock. In 2004, Retief Goosen prevailed at four under. Only he and Phil Mickelson finished the week under par.
Next week’s test on Long Island promises to be a brutal examination for the best in the world – one that will require them to be sharp in every aspect to survive and thrive in William Flynn’s masterpiece. In short, it’s not a place you hope to find (or restart) your game. But this is where some of golf’s best find themselves.
With Shinnecock in the offing, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler arrived at last week’s Memorial Tournament ready to face a major upgrade.
Scheffler came in a week later another disappointing close in the Byron Nelson CJ Cup. The World No. 1 won on his first start in 2026, but has repeatedly found himself on the wrong side of golf’s fine line since then, racking up six top-three finishes without a win in the four months since American Express. Scheffler’s game has been good in 2026, but only a point worse than his world-winning ways in 2025. Still, he showed up at Muirfield Village as the two-time defending champion on a course that suits his eye and methodical play. McIlroy, meanwhile, had only used it twice since then His masters win (T19 and T7) and has been battling a driver problem that cost him PGA Championship Sunday.
The commemoration was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for the big championship race coming up on Long Island next week. A win wasn’t necessary, but leaving with a polished game and no sharp questions was the preferred outcome for two great players whose years are defined by their results in the four tournaments that matter most.
Four grueling days in the village of Muirfield Scheffler’s exploits of caddie Ted Scott after a water cannon in the first round, McIlroy hugged Justin Thomas after a brutal beating in the second round – and, overall, two of the US Open favorites were still looking their best.
McIlroy finished T12 thanks to an early Sunday flurry of birdies where he took advantage of a softer Muirfield village after Saturday’s storms dampened Jack Nicklaus’ meat grinder. McIlroy’s iron game was superb at Muirfield Village; he was ranked 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach for the week. But his erratic driving plagued him. While he was tied for 11th for the week in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, McIlroy hit just 53 percent of his fairways as he struggled with what is normally his superpower.
“Off toe still wasn’t where I wanted it to be,” McIlroy said on Sunday. “Thankfully, the fairways at Shinnecock are a little wider than they are here. But, yeah, I still have to work on that. I have to work on how I’m hitting it off the top. But everything else, feeling pretty good, for the most part.”
McIlroy was then asked to diagnose his driver problem, something he survived to win at Augusta National but couldn’t handle at Aronimink. He knows what the problem is, but fixing it has been challenging.
“I get a little bit under the plane on the downhill and then from there I try to pull the handle to adjust, and then I have toe shots,” McIlroy explained. “So if I aim for a touch left trying to hit a cut and I get a touch under it and then I try to save it by dragging the handle, I hit it off my toe and then it goes left. But then if I try to hit one that’s a draw or pretty neutral, I’m still going to be a little bit under it, and I’m going to try to get the club out a little bit to get it out. in front of me, but then when it comes out in front of me, if i get it there then it’s all about the right release pattern along the way.
Do you have all these?
When a reporter quipped that he was “limited” in understanding the intricacies of the swing, McIlroy said, “I feel limited at the moment, too.”
Scheffler also finished T12 at the Memorial, after an up-and-down four days in which he bounced between deadly accuracy and uncharacteristic carelessness that resulted in nine bogeys and one double on the week. In round 1, Scheffler lost 2.5 strokes on his approaches, but in the third round he gained 3.5 strokes. He took 1.2 shots off the tee on Thursday, but missed almost a full stroke in that category on Friday.
A little of this, a little of that. But not what was expected or what will be required next week.
“I would say pretty frustrating,” Scheffler said of his week on Sunday. “But the way I played the last two days, I definitely feel a lot better about where things are than when I left the course on Friday. I guess I’d have to say mid-round on Friday. I started hitting some good shots on the back nine on Friday and then played well the last two days. I just wasn’t sharp enough to make the big move I needed to make.”
Scheffler noted a number of “silly mistakes” he made at Muirfield Village, including some sloppy putting and putting himself in the wrong spot when he missed the green. All of which means some tweaking will be needed before he heads to Long Island in search of a career Grand Slam.
“Just little things, little mistakes that I don’t usually make, I felt like I was making this week,” Scheffler said. “So a few things to clean up in the off week, but overall, I feel very comfortable with where my game is at.”
Scheffler and McIlroy aren’t the only stars trying to find their peak form with the US Open just around the corner.
During LIV, Bryson DeChambeau’s preparation for the US Open saw him continue to battle some of the same swing issues he battled during a missed cut at the PGA Championship – up to one chat with google gemini helped him make some changes.
“The golf swing felt in sync, and then it started getting out of sync, and it felt like my hands were going ahead of me,” DeChambeau said after a third-place finish at LIV Korea. “It went on like that for the next couple of rounds, and it was very frustrating. I spent a couple of long hours on the range trying to figure some things out, and I was talking to AI quite a bit last night trying to go through some different principles of physics that make the club swing … I came out here today with just a little bit of a looser hand, and I felt the club a lot more effective and I felt the club a lot more effective and better. that.”
DeChambeau followed up his third place finish in Korea with a T11 at last week’s LIV Andalucia. After missing the cut at the Masters and PGA, DeChambeau faces a big week at Shinnecock, especially with his professional future is unclear as LIV struggles to find funding for life beyond 2026. DeChambeau has played well at LIV this year, but his major failures have been glaring. Regardless, DeChambeau said Flushing It that his short stays in Augusta and Aronimink give him no cause for concern.
“To be honest, missed cuts are going to happen. I might miss all four majors this year,” DeChambeau said Flushing It. “That’s just golf. Like, I’m playing great. I just didn’t show up when it mattered most. But I’ve been playing well here at LIV, and I’m working hard on my golf swing and, I feel like it’s in a really strong place. It’s pretty close to some of my best golf ever.”
Big questions loom for three of golf’s biggest stars. They will be asked to answer them in the final examination of the game.
