Nine things to know: Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, 2026 U.S. Open

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Shinnecock Hills Golf Club preview

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Written by Bradley S. Klein

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The U.S. Open returns to historic Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on the far eastern end of Long Island, New York, June 18-21.

The course is the only venue to hold U.S. Opens in three centuries (1896, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2018 and now 2026).

Here’s what to know and expect about the site and the week there.

It’s going to be a sport-crazed week for the whole of the New York metropolitan area, with golf’s national championship part of an unprecedented series of events. With New York a basketball-crazed town, the New York Knicks will celebrate their 2026 NBA Championship with a ticker-tape parade on Thursday. FIFA’s quadrennial World Cup is also in town Tuesday night, with France vs. Senegal at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands. And don’t forget New York Yankees home games the whole week against the White Sox and Reds. From one end of Long Island to the other across the 110-mile-wide region.

Long Island is also golf-crazy, thanks to 165 courses, including such wildly public venues as the five-course Bethpage State Park. This will be the 11th U.S. Open, following past championships at Shinnecock Hills (1896, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2018), Garden City Golf Club (1902), Inwood (1923), Fresh Meadow Country Club (1932) and Bethpage Black (2002, 2009). Toss in six PGA Championships at Engineers (1919), Inwood (1921), Salisbury (1926), Fresh Meadow Country Club (1930), Pomonok Country Club (1939) and Bethpage Black (2019), as well as the 2025 Ryder Cup (Bethpage Black), and you have an incredible history of majors.

Plus, there’s the museum-quality architectural heritage of the region that includes Garden City Golf Club (Devereux Emmet and Walter Travis) as well as Shinnecock’s immediately adjoining neighbors, National Golf Links of America (Charles Blair Macdonald), Sebonack Golf Club (Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak) and Southampton Golf Club (Seth Raynor).

A view of the ninth fairway and clubhouse at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. (Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR)

In fact, if you wanted to conduct arguably the most lucrative golf charity in history, just schedule a 72-hole, one-day event with relay teams that would proceed seamlessly to play Southampton holes 1-5, jump the hedge to play Shinnecock 11-18, 1-2, climb through another hedgerow to play National Golf Links 10-18, 1-3, then next door to play Sebonack 8-18, then 1-7, back over to National for holes 4-9, over to Shinnecock for 3-10, and then back across to finish up on Southampton again, 6-18. That would be a day of architecturally significant golf without taking off your golf shoes. Only on Long Island

Golf started here in 1892, with the original 12-hole course designed by Willie Davis and measuring 4,423 yards long, which is the length it played at the second U.S. Open, held here in 1896. The course was completely redesigned in 1915-1916 by Charles Blair Macdonald, with the town’s former civil engineer, a non-golfer named Seth Raynor, working at his side. Their design partnership quickly blossomed, and today it is memorialized not only with a string of epic layouts like Chicago Golf Club and Yale University Golf Course, but also with their adjoining tombstones at nearby Southampton Cemetery, just down the road from Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

The present routing and character of the heathland layout is the product of a massive rebuild in 1930-31 by William S. Flynn. Interestingly, the club refers to him, informally, as their consulting architect, though he passed away in 1945. After years of intensive tree planting and growth, the club has driven to recapture the open, windswept character of that dunes-like creation. cape that Flynn envisioned.

An aerial view of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, host of the 2026 U.S. Open Championship. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Everything about Shinnecock Hills is expansive: 300 acres to the entire property. 42 acres of fairway. 8 acres of bunkering. 100 acres of native rough. Greens that average 7,400 square feet. Extensive tree removal over the last 25 years has exposed incredible long views across the whole site and out onto the coastline.

The whole modern movement towards restoration in course design can be said to date to the USGA’s decision to hold the 1986 U.S. Open here. Since then, the course has progressed steadily to embody its founding vision as a rough-hewn, scruffy environment that combines the latest in agronomic technique and sophistication down the middle (from tee to fairway to green) while allowing a naturally sustainable, multi-textured plant mix of fescues and little bluestem to flourish in the peripheral areas. The result is a powerful juxtaposition of a firm, fast and consistent playing central surface amidst the rough and tumble of a rugged coastal envelope.

The genius of the seaside setting is enhanced by an iconic Shingle-style clubhouse created by Stanford White of the landmark New York design firm, McKim, Mead & White, in 1892. Though much expanded laterally within a few years, the country’s first purpose-built golf clubhouse remains without air conditioning even today. Its location atop a hill overlooking the golf course and exposed to ever-present breezes from the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Peconic Bay to the north provides all the ventilation needed.

Raymond Floyd celebrates after securing victory at the 1986 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

There’s no better reminder of the power of natural golf conditions than the opening round of the 1986 U.S. Open, when a Nor’easter blew across the property, with winds approaching 40 mph and occasionally intense rain, producing an average score of 75.3 and almost a third of the field shot in the 80s. Jack Nicklaus lost his opening tee shot on the 10th hole, and only one player – Bob Tway – matched par for the round. By Sunday, the weather calmed and the competition heated up, with nine players at one point tied for the lead until Raymond Floyd broke through the logjam with a 4-under par 66 to become (at an age of 43 years and 284 days) the oldest winner of the national championship.

The 1995 U.S. Open saw young amateur phenom Tiger Woods compete in his first U.S. Open, though he was forced to withdraw mid-round Friday with a wrist injury from Shinnecock Hills’ notoriously dense rough. On Sunday, Corey Pavin, the second shortest driver of the ball all week, emerged with a two-stroke victory over Greg Norman. The decisive blow was one of the most memorable shots in U.S. Open history, a 228-yard 4-wood in a helping, right-to-left wind from the right fairway on the 450-yard 18th hole to within 5 feet of the hole. NBC commentator Johnny Miller famously called it at the time “the shot of his life,” and though Pavin missed the birdie putt, the par was enough to secure a very emotional win.

Corey Pavin shows the trophy to the crowd after winning the U.S. Open in 1995 at Shinnecock Hills. (Getty images)

Course conditions turned brutally dry on the weekend of the 2004 U.S. Open. Miscommunication between the USGA setup team and the maintenance crew at Shinnecock Hills led to such a severe firming up of the course that play was temporarily suspended Sunday morning because balls would not stop rolling on the green of the par-3 seventh hole until extra water was applied. South Africa’s Retief Goosen put on the putting display of a lifetime, one-putting eleven times during his final round, including five of the last six greens, to shoot a 71 on a day when the average score was 78.7. Among those succumbing to the tough conditions was contender Phil Mickelson, who three-putted the par-3 17th hole from five feet and lost by two shots. It was his third time finishing second in a U.S. Open; he would go on to finish second (or tied) a total of six times, thus falling short by this one championship of claiming the Grand Slam of golf. Meanwhile, as a result of the 2004 setup confusion, the USGA completely altered its approach towards golf course management and took closer control of managing course preparation going forward.

Phil Mickelson plays from a greenside bunker on the 17th hole during the final round of the 2004 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

The 2018 U.S. Open saw defending champion Brooks Koepka triumph for the second time running, matching previous back-to-back winners Ben Hogan (1950-51) and Curtis Strange (1988-89). His final round 68 was good enough for a 1-over par 281 total and a one-shot victory over fast-charging Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, whose final round 63 capped off a day of favorable scoring thanks to uncommonly modest winds and more favorable hole locations. Rickie Fowler went from 84 to 65 on the weekend. Average course score dropped from 75.3 to 72.2. Koepka, as it turns out, was in the midst of a furious major streak that followed consecutive U.S Open wins with back-to-back wins in the PGA Championship, 2018-19.

Brooks Koepka on what it takes to win the U.S. Open

Shinnecock Hills, a par 70, is stretched to the limit of its distance at 7,440. That’s the same distance it played in 2018, though average driving distance on the PGA TOUR has increased over that time by 2.6%. In 2017-2018, it was 296.1 yards; year-to-date now it’s up to 303.9 yards. If you include drives and approach shots, Shinnecock Hills this time around will play about 193 yards shorter – marginal, but nonetheless consequential.

One big difference is that the fairway mowing lines have been altered slightly from 2018 to extend closer to the bunkers, bringing them more into play and thus effectively making the ground game roll out for tee shots and approaches more dynamic and more compelling. Back then, in 2018, the club had narrowed the fairways in the run-up to the U.S. Open. Not this time. Under the direction of veteran superintendent Jonathan Jennings, CGCS, the plan is to let Shinnecock play like Shinnecock.

11th hole, par 3, 157 yards

A view of the 11th green, known as “Hill Head,” during the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

Lee Trevino called the 11th hole ”the shortest par 5 in golf.” It’s certainly the shortest hole at Shinnecock Hills and also has the smallest green, only 4,280 square feet. That’s about 60% of an average green out there; it’s also the most elusive thanks to a 17-foot climb from tee to green and the kind of convex contour that seemingly repels an approach shot upon landing. Four steep bunkers protect the front, and while there’s a fairway bailout long and left, it leaves the kind of recovery that’s up and over and very hard to control. The putting surface occupies the high point on the entire golf course – 72 feet above sea level. It is thus the course setting most exposed to wind, which out here is almost always present, often downwind over the left shoulder, but occasionally straight into the player’s face. Handling “Hill Head” is more a matter of managing nerves than of making a technically competent swing.

14th hole, par 4, 520 yards

A sunset view of the 14th green during the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. (Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR)

This is the longest hole in relation to par at the 2026 U.S. Open and the hole that played hardest during the 2018 U.S. Open, with an average score of 4.74, basically three-quarters of a shot over par. This despite it playing downhill on the tee shot some 40 feet to the fairway landing area and generally downwind with the prevailing southwesterly breeze at the player’s back. The problem is a reverse-camber fairway that falls from right to left while the hole bends slightly left to right. It’s a 284-yard carry over an inside right fairway bunker, but that just brings into play another one deeper left that’s 325 yards to reach. Anything but a high cut tends to be drawn magnetically into that second hazard. From there, the approach shot, circa 200 yards, is slightly uphill over front bunkers left and right to one of the simpler greens on the course. Miss the fairway off the tee and bogey (or worse) is a likely outcome. This will be a hole to watch where distance off the tee is almost a liability, certainly without the kind of shot-making control that keeps the ball in play.

16th hole, par 5, 614 yards

The 16th hole and clubhouse at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. First opened in 1891, Shinnecock Hills is the only course to have hosted U.S. Opens in three different centuries. (Getty Images)

A full three-shot hole, thanks to length into a prevailing wind. Twenty bunkers dot the way from tee to green, half of them at the putting surface, the other half scattered strategically on offset angles at the tee shot and second shot landing zones. That keeps players on their toes the entire way. Raymond Floyd sealed his 1986 win here with a crucial birdie in 1986. Tom Lehman made a costly double-bogey during the 1995 championship that damaged his chances, while Greg Norman failed to make the birdie he needed to catch Corey Pavin. It’s that rare par-5 where second shots matter and player sweat out their short-iron approach shot.

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

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