SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – When the USGA contested the 2004 edition of the United States Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, the festivities devolved into pure chaos on the weekend.
The winds increased, the course remained unwatered, and the greens resembled something closer to concrete than poa annua grass, as approach shots bounded like they’d hit a trampoline, and even short putts were being de-greened.
“Shinnecock Hills is a great golf course,” said Tiger Woods, who shot 73-76 in the final two rounds, “but they lost control of it. This is not supposed to be how golf is played.”
Fourteen years later, the USGA returned to Shinnecock, but hadn’t learned from those previous mistakes.
Again the wind pumped, again the course firmed up to beyond usual standards, and again shots which appeared deftly played were instead severely penalized.
In the third round, 19 players who’d fared well enough to make the cut posted scores of 78 or higher. Phil Mickelson, perhaps trying to prove a point, hit a ball which was still moving off the green. And the competitors didn’t mince words afterwards.
“I thought we could be on the edge, but we’ve surpassed it,” Zach Johnson concluded. “Unfortunately, they’ve lost the golf course.”
A few days prior to the latest iteration of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock, there’s valid cause for concern, considering enduring memories of the last two feature images of a golf course gone wrong. As any pro will acknowledge, difficult conditions are expected – after all, this is supposed to be the toughest test of golf each year – but unfair conditions, when good shots are punished instead of rewarded, is when the players mount their mutiny.
Already, there are suggestions that USGA officials will preemptively attempt to keep such accusations from surfacing.
Those players who scouted the venue in previous weeks reported that fairways are wider than in the past and wider than they would’ve expected.
“I was a little surprised at the width of the fairways,” explained Scottie Scheffler. “The rough, also, was a really good penalty, I think, for the width. Once you start missing fairways out there, you have no chance. But the fairways are generous enough to where it provides you some opportunity and that way it’s just that the green complexes are extraordinarily difficult, and so they can put the pins wherever they want and make the scores as high as they could possibly want ’em to be.”
“They’re more generous than they were in 2018,” Rory McIlroy added. “But the first cut of rough is five inches long. So it’s like the first cut is maybe three paces wide and then it gets into the fescue. … If you miss the fairway, I feel like you deserve a bad lie.”
I recently spoke with Johnson for an interview on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio during which I asked what advice he’d offer to the USGA in order to keep from yet another repeat performance.
“I still say to this day that Shinnecock is probably my favorite course I ever competed on,” said the two-time major champion. “However, there’s a caveat there – if you let Shinnecock be, she’s still really good. That facility, those grounds, it’s as if God dropped a course on a piece of land and it just sits there. It’s so good. It’s my favorite U.S. Open venue, without question.
“Don’t touch it. Don’t manipulate it. Just let it be. The membership deserves that, the competitors deserve that, the Open deserves that. … I’m jealous of those guys who get to play it, because it’s one of the best venues that our sport has and I just hope they let it be. It has enough teeth, it has everything and every element you need. Short, long, left, right, up, down – it has it all.”
Over the next week, we’ll find out whether the teeth have been left intact or whether the USGA has once again opted for manipulation.
Either way, a winner will be crowned on Sunday evening, one who likely figures out all the subtleties and suggestions of this venue – or, just maybe, doesn’t try to figure ‘em out at all.
As Retief Goosen, the winner of that fateful 2004 U.S. Open, recently said when asked how a player should attack Shinnecock: “Like any other golf course – hit it on the fairway, hit it on the green and make the putt.”
At the world’s toughest tournament, on one of its most difficult courses, it all sounds easy enough.
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