42 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2018
GOLF GUIDE
SHINNECOCK OPEN:
DRIVING PROS MAD
BY JOHN DUNDON
The magic of Southampton’s
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club lies in
its history.
It is one of the inaugural five golf
clubs of the U.S. Golf Association.
Its clubhouse is the oldest in
America. And it’ll soon be the only
venue to have hosted the Open in
three different centuries.
But for USGA officials tasked with
making sure the Open venue poses a
stiff test for the world’s best golfers,
the layout of the East End’s crown
golf jewel carries more weight than
its illustrious backstory.
“They’ve been growing the fescue
out over the past couple of weeks,”
Shinnecock Caddie Master Greg
Gagliardo tells the Press. “They
brought the fairways in tighter back
in September.”
The most recent design modifications
undertaken at Shinnecock Hills
involved seven years of back and
forth with USGA officials. The
renovations undertaken were
intended to make the course more
Open-centric. Seven acres of fairway
were converted into rough.
The latest modifications came after
the 2017 U.S. Open at Wisconsin’s
Erin Hills, where the course played
far too easy for the pros and featured
a winning score of 16-under par. It
was clear that USGA officials were
keen on creating a stiffer challenge
in 2018.
“The club undertook a restoration
to return the golf course to its roots,”
USGA official Jeff Hall told Golfing
World late last year, speaking of that
first renovation.
“The restoration work was
wonderful, but we need to strike a
balance between being true to the
architecture and testing the best
players in the world,” Hall said. “In
collaboration with the club, we’ve
undertaken a tightening of the golf
course.”
Many tees have also been pushed
back. The course will be playing
around 7,500 yards, far longer than
the length of 6,996 it was back in
2004, the last time the Open came
to Southampton.
“I think we’ve struck the right
balance between making sure
accuracy is a key component...and
being true to the architecture and
design,” Hall said.
Long Islanders will make the trek
to the East End and watch a new
generation of PGA pros try to take
on one of America’s original golf
masterpieces. Of the top 10 golfers
according to the Official World
Golf Ranking, only 2013 U.S. Open
Champion Justin Rose has played
at Shinnecock Hills before. Rose
missed the cut back at the ’04 Open,
shooting an impressively bad 15 over
par Thursday and Friday combined.
Shinnecock’s layout has a few blind
tee shots, but the course’s beauty is
evident right off the first tee box.
Doglegs, bunkers, and of course the
iconic thick fescue are visible more
often than not from the slightly
elevated tee boxes overlooking
Peconic Bay.
“The first tee offers a nice view of the
golf course,” Gagliardo says. “The
fescue will be blowing in the wind.
Even with the tents in the way, it’s a
nice panoramic view of the course.”
Shinnecock had not previously been
a course that mandates 325-yard
drives down every par-4 to be in
contention on Sunday. In light of
these modifications though, it seems
that USGA officials are intent on
rewarding long hitters like Dustin
Johnson, moving with a common
trend in the game.
Back in 2004, it was not the course’s
length or tightness that gave golfers
fits. The par-3 seventh hole was
the most contentious point of the
weekend.
“The seventh hole is unplayable,’’
PGA tour pro Ernie Els said at the
time, when only two golfers finished
the weekend under par.
‘’The majority of the field is going
to make (bogey) there,” Els ranted.
“It’s ridiculous. The green has to
be a little bit receptive. The green
slopes right to left away from you,
and where they put the flag, you had
no chance. They didn’t quite set it
up the way the hole was designed.”
The 2018 U.S. Open will be June 14 to 17 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton.