Shinnecock braces – Six observations from Shinnecock Hills sketch a U.S. Open that could feel unlike most others: wide-open competition, obsessive around-the-green strategy, and a Thursday forecast built on sustained wind and 40 mph gusts. The USGA says course conditions will be
By the end of three days at Shinnecock Hills—walking the course, sitting through press conferences, and staring at what players were doing when they thought no one was really watching—the week ahead started to feel less like a standard U.S. Open setup.
It felt conditional. Wind-dependent. One wrong bounce away from changing everything.
Southampton, N.Y. has been preparing for the championship, but the questions that keep surfacing here are practical: Who handles gusts the best?. Who can stay calm when the course won’t behave?. And how much of the week will be won around the greens. where a single bounce decides whether a shot turns into escape or punishment?.
A player’s “shape” won’t matter as much as their ability to adapt—fast.
It’s the kind of week where even the early practice carries weight.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy didn’t look incredibly sharp in smatterings of practice seen over the first three days. It wasn’t framed as a mystery—both left the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday with things they needed to work on—but the effect was immediate. The early impression stuck: this U.S. Open feels wide open.
The course already doesn’t favor one specific type of player. Then there’s the other variable. the one with teeth: very little historical data to lean on when the weather shifts the way it’s expected to. Gusts up to 40 mph on Thursday are part of the plan. and that kind of force can turn “good” into “luckless” in a single swing.
So the week’s biggest obsession isn’t just about distance or swing speed. It’s about the around-the-green work.
Justin Thomas. for example. was seen trying to play from roughly 20 yards behind the first green—attempting a 60-degree pitching wedge. a 6-iron. and a putter. The only one that went well was the 6-iron bump-and-run. The takeaway was hard to ignore: with slow greens and soft surrounds. players could need more than half their bag just to get around the green correctly.
Shots that land short of the green struggle to get close, and if the first bounce happens on the green itself, stopping becomes its own battle.
Even off the tee, the choice isn’t as simple as it usually is.
Several players described a decision that keeps returning in conversations: driver or iron?. With high winds making fairway woods feel risky—specifically because a 3- or 5-wood that spins into the air is described as a recipe for disaster—players are choosing between attacking with the driver or hitting a low-iron shot that punctures the wind.
It’s also why the thinking around the course is getting more creative. Brooks Koepka, the 2018 U.S. Open winner at Shinnecock Hills, has a method for major weeks that shows up in how he walks holes. He “plays the hole backward”—not literally. but by starting at the green and working his way back. figuring out which side of the fairway he wants to set up from off the tee.
One specific test for that approach came in a walk of the front nine backward. The biggest insight: the 8th hole, a dogleg-right. Conventional wisdom usually points golfers to hug the inside of the dogleg to set up the best angle and shortest approach—but the best opportunities are for players who hug the left side. creating what’s described as the ideal angle.
And the course isn’t the only thing that’s behaving differently this week.
On Wednesday, the day before the major, the usual pattern didn’t hold. On the eve of a major championship. the golf course generally clears out quickly in the afternoon. with much of the field trying to conserve energy for the week. At Shinnecock. Scottie Scheffler. Rory McIlroy. Brooks Koepka. and Xander Schauffele were among a large contingent that stayed much later than normal schedules.
There are plenty of possible reasons—one detail offered was that the writer stayed late to avoid traffic—but the feeling in the air was that this major is unique. There’s “tons of anticipation” for what Shinnecock might dole out over the next four days. and some extra prep was clearly happening late on Wednesday.
McIlroy’s own practice also carried a human thread—one that wasn’t only about scoring.
During a late practice round, McIlroy played alongside amateurs Mason Howell and Harrison Coleman. Howell and Coleman couldn’t stop smiling during the session, and the moment felt cool for them. The impression shared was that it felt cool in a different way for McIlroy too. He’s told stories from his own amateur days. including lessons learned from major practice rounds with players like Tom Watson. On this day. he appeared to be passing some of that on—overheard giving insightful advice to Howell. with the note that the specifics should stay between them.
What adds urgency to all of these observations is the forecast.
Sustained winds around 20 mph are expected all day on Thursday, with gusts over 40 mph. The USGA expects Thursday to play like the final round of the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Chief Competitions Officer John Bodenhamer said the USGA is prepared to handle the conditions by curbing green speeds to their slowest in more than 30 years. The stated goal is to avoid the need to suspend play because balls won’t stop on the greens.
The Pebble Beach reference came with numbers that underline the risk: 77.3 was the scoring average, the low score was 70, the high score was 88, and 73% of the field shot 75 or higher.
If that kind of disruption translates to Shinnecock on Thursday, it would explain why the week feels like it’s already built for extremes—grumpy golfers, and exuberant watchers.
Other details showed how players might adapt.
Aaron Rai was seen practicing his putting on the surface of the driving range on Wednesday morning. Later. after seeing Rai and his team out on the course. a thought process was described: players expect to hit putts from off the green often. and from far distances. The only way to simulate that while practicing, the team suggested, is to putt on the driving range.
Bunkers, too, are part of the week’s difficulty. There are large pebbles in the bunkers, many hidden beneath the surface. The writer saw golfers flummoxed by how their shots reacted, only realizing there was a rock under the ball after contact. Avoid the pebbles, and the lies feel friendly.
Even pace could become part of the story. Practice rounds moved at a glacial pace, with some taking nearly four hours to play nine holes. Long rounds are expected, too. The combination of wind and the confined property is described as leading to plenty of backups, with six-hour rounds not ruled out.
And as for where all of this pressure lives on the map, the writer’s favorite hole on the property is the 10th.
It’s framed as an encapsulation of the challenge: hit two quality shots and a birdie opportunity is doable. Miss the fairway, or come up just a bit long or short of the green, and a bogey becomes a realistic—sometimes best-case—outcome.
In a week where gusts and bounce can decide everything, Shinnecock itself feels like the central character.
And the leaderboard won’t be shaped only by who brings the cleanest swings. It may be shaped by who can survive the course’s mood swings—Thursday most of all.
U.S. Open Shinnecock Hills USGA John Bodenhamer Scottie Scheffler Rory McIlroy Brooks Koepka Xander Schauffele wind forecast 40 mph gusts Pebble Beach 1992 comparison