Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, on Monday began its hosting duties for the 2026 U.S. Open. It is the sixth time the third major of the season will be played at the venue, and one reason why excitement for the 126th edition of the U.S. Open is particularly high is the tournament’s setting. Founded in 1891, Shinnecock Hills is the oldest incorporated golf club in the country and was one of the five founding clubs of the USGA. It hosted the second U.S. Open in history, and for the 130 years since, it has stood the test of time as one of golf’s stiffest tests. Over the course of five U.S. Opens contested at Shinnecock Hills, only three players have finished the week under par. Retief Goosen (-4) and Raymond Floyd (-1) hoisted the U.S. Open trophy by staying in red figures in 2004 and 1986, respectively. There’s a cruel irony that Phil Mickelson is the only man to ever post an under-par score and not win at Shinnecock Hills, as he shot 2 under to finish just behind Goosen in 2004. Corey Pavin (E) and Brooks Koepka (+1) both won their U.S. Open titles on Long Island without being able to crack into red figures. Back in May, I got the chance to play Shinnecock Hills for the first time as part of U.S. Open media day and learned firsthand why this course presents such a challenge. Let’s dive into the biggest challenges Shinnecock Hills presents and highlight a handful of holes worth eyeing as pivotal points in determining the champion on Sunday.
What makes Shinnecock Hills so difficult? What stood out about my visit is how challenging Shinnecock Hills plays without ever feeling like it has to be tricked out to be difficult. The USGA will set up the course to play at 7,434 yards — certainly a robust distance for a par 70 course, but not the absolute longest PGA Tour pros will face. This year, they will leave the fairways at their full width rather than pinching them in, with the average fairway playing more than 40 yards wide. On the stimpmeter, the greens will be the slowest at a U.S. Open in a very long time, with the USGA planning to start them just above 11 — for comparison, they started the greens at Oakmont at a 15.5 on Thursday in 2025. Despite not being the longest, tightest or fastest, Shinnecock will still wreak havoc on the world’s best golfers for two main reasons: the wind and the greens.
The wind is a constant, blowing South-Southwest at 15+ miles per hour most every day. When we played it, the steady wind was 24 miles per hour, gusting well over 30. The course is designed, routed and set up for that specific wind — on the rare day the wind shifts to coming from the North, members will rarely even venture out to play — and it is the first part of the defense of Shinnecock Hills. The routing forces you to constantly play into different wind directions. It is not a course where you go back and forth in straight lines, but instead, you tack your way around the property in triangles, rarely playing the same wind or even an opposite wind in succession. On top of the physical challenge of hitting golf shots in the wind, there is an added layer of mental stress from constantly trying to figure out where exactly the wind is coming from and how much it will impact your ball. You face so many crosswinds that picking lines and committing to shots is exceedingly difficult, and every misjudgment shakes your belief that the wind is going to do what you expect in the future. Picking the right club is a constant challenge, which compounds the difficulty when you’re faced with green complexes that have a case for the toughest anywhere in the world. The greens themselves are an incredible challenge, with tons of slopes, tiers and ridges that make what appear to be large greens play much smaller. Being in the right section of the green — and staying below the hole on that section — is a must to have a real chance to make a birdie. Greens in regulation can be a bit of fool’s gold, because a shot in the wrong portion of the green brings a strong possibility of a three-putt. The wind also plays its part on the greens, as downhill, downwind putts are almost impossible to stop, while uphill, into-the-wind putts are incredibly slow. That makes it incredibly difficult to get into a rhythm with your speed, as you’re not only adjusting for slope but also for how much the wind will impact the ball on every putt.
And then there are the green surrounds, which present their own unique challenge. Almost every green at Shinnecock is pitched up above the surrounds and features runoffs on the outer edges, repelling shots and leaving devilishly delicate pitches from tight lies to a green above you. There isn’t any rough to keep your ball close, and a ball that flirts with the edge of a green is likely to run 30, 40 or even 50 yards away. Unlike many courses the pros play, the bunkers won’t necessarily be a much-preferred spot to the fairway cut. The bunkers typically sit well below the green, and the sand is incredibly firm, demanding perfect contact. There isn’t the forgiveness of fluffy sand to just splash out from, and you have to be confident in your bunker game and crisp with your contact to get the ball to stay where you want it. Shinnecock is a tremendous physical test of golfing ability, but what makes it a perfect U.S. Open test is the mental focus required for every single shot across 18 holes. There are few, if any, shots at Shinnecock that don’t require thought and planning. Even off the tee, where players will feel welcomed by some of the widest fairways in U.S. Open history, they’ll have to consider the wind, the slope of the fairways and the angle they’ll need on their second shot to have a chance at keeping the ball below the hole. That mental battle is what U.S. Open golf is all about, and there is nowhere that demands that more than Shinnecock Hills. Five key holes to watchShinnecock Hills is truly remarkable in that there are few holes that aren’t interesting in some way. Each hole presents an opportunity, but also the potential for disaster if you get out of position. However, there are five holes that will be particularly interesting to watch this week in terms of determining who will walk away from Southampton with the U.S. Open trophy.
No. 4 (par 4, 476 yards) The 4th hole doesn’t seem all that remarkable from the tee. It’s a wide fairway with a set of fairway bunkers on the right side before the hole doglegs in that direction. The simplicity of that tee shot belies the challenge that awaits, as the second shot is among the most daunting on any of Shinnecock’s par 4s. The green has tons of slope and severe runoff areas and deep bunkers on all sides, repelling any shot that doesn’t come in at the proper distance and spin control — with the added challenge of playing into the wind. Players will be tempted to go after flags, but the prudent shot every day at No. 4 will be to find the center of the green. A short-sided miss can bring double bogey into play quickly, but even missing the correct portion of this green makes for a difficult two-putt par. No. 7 (par 3, 185 yards) This hole was my welcome-to-the-course moment as my group started on the 7th, and it was a swift lesson in how quickly things can happen at Shinnecock. This is a par 3 with a Redan design, meaning a green with a raised front that slopes away from the player (and, in this case, down to the left). With a narrow opening and bunkers guarding the front right and left, there’s little margin for error. Oh, and the prevailing wind blows heavily into you (with a little right-to-left), adding to the challenge of holding a green that works from front right to back left. From the member tees, we played it 166 yards and had to play it 195. A striped 5 iron flew and drew a fraction too much, hitting the back left side of the green, but it rolled off and rode the slopes into a side-sloping lie in the second (extremely firm) bunker. I flew that to hole-high and rolled out to 15 feet above the hole, which meant putting downhill and downwind. That makes it almost impossible to stop, and a swift three-putt later, I walked off with double bogey that offered an early lesson on the severe penalty for even fractional misses at Shinnecock.
No. 9 (par 4, 481 yards) The 9th feels like it should be the 18th, as it’s actually the 9th green, not the 18th, that sits up by the clubhouse with a natural amphitheater around the green that is severely elevated from the fairway below. The drive is no easy feat, particularly from the back tees with the wind pumping hard across from the right with a bit of hurt to a fairway that angles from right to left. If you should find the angled fairway, you are left with an approach that plays 15-20 yards uphill to a green with a severe false front waiting to repel anything that doesn’t have enough juice into the fescue of front bunkers below. Once on the green, you need to be below the hole (as is the case everywhere at Shinnecock) or be faced with another dreaded downhill, downwind putts. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the Shinnecock experience, as you are under mental and physical stress from the time you hit your tee shot until you finally get the ball in the hole, and anything less than terrific execution will have you struggling not to drop a shot or two. No. 11 (par 3, 155 yards) Dubbed “the shortest par 5 in the world” by Lee Trevino, the 11th at Shinnecock Hills is one of the great short par 3s in the world. The USGA will be able to play this anywhere from 110 yards to 155 yards, and no matter what tee box they choose, players will be asked to hit a perfect tee shot or pay the price. From the tee, players will hit up the hill 40 feet to a small green that slopes from back to front, left to right. The wind is typically hurting off the left, making it harder to get your spin and distance control right on an uphill wedge shot to a firm green. A miss long and left runs down a shaved bank to leave a nearly impossible chip back up to a green running away from you (that’s downwind). A miss short and right will put you in a deep bunker with firm sand and a need to stop the ball quickly to avoid a slippery par putt. Put simply, there’s nowhere to hide on the 11th, and even a good tee shot that gets a fraction past the hole is not easily holed for birdie — I know, as someone who hit it to 7 feet, 7 inches and then had a downhill putt hit the right lip and bounce out. No. 16 (par 5, 614 yards) There are two par-5s at Shinnecock. The 5th plays downwind and will almost assuredly end up as the easiest hole on the golf course, as it was in 2018. The 16th, however, plays straight into the prevailing wind and presents a much greater risk of finding trouble — and thus should produce a lot more variance in scoring. From the tournament tees, it’s a 285-yard carry into the wind just to cover the first bunker on the left and reach the widest part of the fairway, and the two bunkers that frame the left and right sides of the fairway will be in play for long hitters. The second shot isn’t much easier, as the hole snakes through fescue and bunkers all the way to the green, leaving an exacting layup, and it is very easy to compound one mistake with another once you get out of position.
Those who find the fairway will have to decide how far to try to push their second. There’s a plateau around 100 yards out that leaves you a full view of the green from a flat lie, but you have to stay left of another fairway bunker to leave that more-full wedge shot. Pushing it further down into the valley below the green, and to the right, leaves something in the 50-yard range, but from there it becomes a much touchier shot, where spin control and trajectory will be challenged by the pitched green and wind whipping into the player’s face. The 16th will be the last real scoring opportunity of the round before players try to hang on through the 17th and 18th, but it’s a wonderful par 5 in the sense that as much as birdie is in play for those that find the short grass twice, getting out of position on either your drive or layup brings bogey or worse into the mix.
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