SOUTHAMPTON, NY – If you were to worry if Rory McIlroythe reigning Masters champion would find suitable partners for some tune-up golf on Wednesday afternoon here on the eve of the sixth US Open in Shinnecock Hillsyou can stop worrying.
McIlroy teed off on the 10th shortly after 2 p.m., playing with Mason Howell and Hamilton Coleman. Both are 18-year-old Georgians who will enroll at the University of Georgia at the end of the summer, where they will be roommates. Both had tournament bags as big as Rory McIlroy’s bag.
The boys chatted easily with McIlroy, 37, and headed to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Both are McIlroy’s match for swing speed and ball speed and the speed to adjust to it. If they were frightened at all, there was no outward sign of it. McIlroy gave a subtle nod when Coleman, who appeared to weigh about 138 pounds, hit a driver from 10. Coleman turned heads like this — a practice round with one of the best players in history — is every day. Children these days. Children!
Waiting to play a hole, McIlroy started doing the bouncing ball thing, turning the face of his wedge into a springboard, bouncing the ball back and forth off his tee lines until one bounced away from him. McIlroy watched as his ball went straight into his golf bag, landing straight on the bottom with an immediate and audible thud. He gave a wry laugh and he and his caddy, Harry Diamond, began pulling clubs out of the bag, with a plan to retrieve the ball, before giving up. McIlroy reached for a new ball.
Throughout, Howell continued to do his puck routine, stopping the ball in front of his wedge whenever he felt like it. Kind of a magic trick, really – fun and games, on the eve of the US Open. Howell was wearing an embroidered belt with the ANGC stencil on it. that is, Augusta National Golf Club. In April, Howell played in his first Masters, earning a spot in the field and a spot in Rory McIlroy’s Thursday-Friday trio as US amateur champion.
If Mason Howell and Hamilton Coleman are two of the prominent faces of elite American golf for the next two or three years, elite American golf will be in a good place, for skill, for determination, for a fair ethos. In case you were worried about that. Rory McIlroy refused to join these kids, half his age, incidentally.
If you were concerned about the quality of the greens, here at Shinnecock Hills, based on Comments by Michael Kim or anything else, don’t be. The Korean-born golfer, with a particularly active life on social media, described the greens as “spongy” and “quite bumpy” and full of “air holes” in a post on Tuesday. The greens were not spongy until Wednesday afternoon and Rory & Friends went round. They weren’t lumpy. The teenagers were rolling one after the other. The greens were filled with dark cured vents. They won’t do anything for a good shot hit from end to end.
These beautiful, sloping William Flynn greens here have a variety of colors, as often do exposed greens on windy courses near open water. You can see shades of poa and rye and bends in the greens, along with air spots. These are not Oakmont greens or Augusta National greens. They are Shinnecock greens and they are more than ready to try.
If you’ve been worried about the USGA and how it will handle the demands of putting a US Open on an exposed, hilly course with four days of wind in the forecast, don’t worry. For starters, golf is an outdoor sport (with all due respect to the TGL indoor game) and weather challenges are an essential part of the game. Furthermore, this current USGA regime – the president, Kevin Hammer, whose father was a club pro; CEO, Mike Whan, who made his way into golf as an effective LPGA commissioner; John Bodenhamer, who directs USGA championships and has obsessively watched previous Shinnecock Opens to learn what he could — feels comfortable reducing green speed and keeping greens moist in the name of keeping balls on the green in the wind.
In other words, we’re going to putt 72 holes of golf over these next four days, and it’s going to be good, which means it’s going to be interesting. So don’t worry. As the kids say, or used to say, all is well.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
