SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK — Standing from the tee box at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, one can’t help but notice the iconic windmill from the National Golf Links of America towering in the distance.
However, windmills, like golf, are man-made. Nestled naturally across from the National Golf Links, Shinnecock Hills and Sebonac is the veritable nearby albatross: Great Peconic Bay. Like the albatross in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the Great Peconic seems innocent and tame. On the other hand, like Coleridge’s albatross, it is the source of pure chaos and disaster.
The wind is coming out The Great Peconic is where the 2026 US Open at Shinnecock will live or die.
Since the last US Open here in 2018, the fairways have been widened by about six yards going back to the Coore-Crenshaw renovation that mirrors architect William Flynn’s original 1931 masterpiece. During that 2018 Open, the USGA chipped in on many of the fairways, which averaged about 42 yards in width; this year, they’re averaging about 48 yards, among the widest ever in this championship and about 20 yards wider than we saw at Oakmont a year ago.
To the casual fan, that six feet of expansion might not sound like much. But if you put it into perspective — especially in football terms — that number makes sense. Jim Brown, widely regarded as the greatest rusher of all time, averaged 5.2 yards per carry. A run of five yards is considered above average for a running back. The fact that Shinnecock’s clean roads have gained more width than a vintage Jim Brown carry makes this both compelling and, frankly, a little shocking.
During my time walking the course on Tuesday and Wednesday, one thing was abundantly clear: players were finding freeways. Lots of freeways.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. During today’s press conference, the USGA’s Mike Whan and John Bodenhamer reiterated the importance of “letting Shinnecock be Shinnecock.” Right now, the course is playing almost exactly as played by its members.
That’s good.
However, there is a fine line between allowing a course to play as originally intended while also accounting for modern equipment and subsequent distance gains. As a result, it may come as no surprise, but the practice rounds saw plenty of aggression from players off the tee. Unlike its PGA Championship predecessor, Aronimink, Shinnecock’s fairways are less steep, and the wide fairways certainly encourage players.
While I hate to keep comparing Shinnecock courses to Pennsylvania (what can I say? I’m from PA), it’s totally fair to compare it to another US Open anchor site: Oakmont.
As has been well established, the penalty for the lack of narrow streets in Oakmont is draconian. With this year’s setup, the USGA seems to be going in the opposite direction, and even missed fairways aren’t penalized nearly as severely. In recent years, some of the key principles needed to win the US Open have been keeping the ball in play, hitting accurate approach shots and, of course, putting hard. I mean, look at the way Brooks Koepka won here in 2018. Back then, Koepka was easily one of golf’s most elite drivers, but he struggled with a 3-iron for much of the week. He held the ball in front of him.
This type of play, at least during practice rounds, has been virtually non-existent. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s fair or even reasonable to expect the same thing on Thursday and Friday for several reasons.
The first is the USGA itself.
Kierkegaard said that “anxiety is the vertigo of freedom,” and the USGA has remained convinced that the wide open fairways will force players to expend a great deal of mental energy in determining their approach game. That’s the theory: more latitude creates more options, and more options create more room for doubt.
I’m bound to say that this has proven to be the case, as players have a number of different options available to them. Once again, however, the issue of distance rears its head. On missed approaches on the par 5 and longer on the par 4, we are seeing memories of Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst, with a number of players choosing to push off the green.
Speaking of green, that’s a story in itself. During their press conference, Whan and Bodenhamer confirmed that the greens will be teed up on Thursday and Friday and that, for the entire week, green speed would be around 10.5 on the Stimpmeter: the slowest we’ve seen in 30 years here. I guess it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: The USGA is not shameless, but I firmly believe they know what they’re doing and subscribe to their philosophy that if Shinnecock “isn’t good enough, we shouldn’t come here.”
If all of this sounds disturbing because you want to see absolute carnage at the US Open, you’ve forgotten the Great Peconic.
Like its neighbor, National Golf Links, Shinnecock, except for one tree, is a mostly treeless property, and that means absolutely no protection against the force of the sea. With onshore wind gusts of up to 36 mph expected tomorrow and even higher gusts expected through the weekend, the USGA’s decision to expand fairways and syringe greens could potentially be seen as an act of mercy.
If nothing else, it’s a hedge against high scores.
We put things into perspective earlier about how substantially freeways have expanded. Let’s do the same with wind. According to the National Weather Service, winds of 36 mph are considered a full-blown hurricane. Imagine trying to play golf in wind that is strong enough to snap tree branches at green speed, driving a 15 on the Stimmeter. It is very unlikely. Some greens can become virtually unplayable.
This year’s US Open is proving something we often forget in an increasingly modern world. As much as we would like to be, human beings are not in control of the natural world. The USGA, by virtue of the Shinnecock Hills setting, has effectively pulled the reins, thrown its hands up and said “we’re not going to play God,” because, in this case, it realizes that in golf (and in life), nature is the great equalizer.
By the time all is said and done, the effects of the Great Peconic Bay will surely speak for themselves.
