Shinnecock Hills 101

Over the next week, you are going to hear a lot about Shinnecock Hills and how it will challenge the best players in the world. So here’s a nuts-and-bolts description of what makes Shinnecock both impossibly hard and one of the greatest golf courses in the world.

Soils

I know, let’s start with the exciting stuff — soil science! Much like the Open Championship venues, Shinnecock sits on sandy soil. Sandy soil drains well, meaning it gets firm. Firm conditions make the ball bounce and roll, effectively narrowing fairways and shrinking targets on greens. This rewards players who can find the fairway and control their ball with spin and severely punishes those who can’t. The players playing the best should theoretically be able to separate more.

Wind and Routing

Shinnecock Hills is in Southampton, New York. If you look at a map, you will notice that it’s way out on Long Island, which juts well out into the Atlantic Ocean. As any sailor knows, oceans are windy because there is nothing to blunt the wind. You are at its mercy. On top of that, Shinnecock Hills sits on a high point in the area, which exposes it even more to the wind. In today’s game, wind is one of few things that can genuinely challenge elite golfers. It makes players flight shots, hit certain shot shapes, and control their ball.

On top of the ever-present wind, most of Shinnecock’s holes — as well as shots within holes — play in different directions. Most of the time you are just trying to figure out exactly which way the wind is blowing. Minute-to-minute shifts in wind direction can cause an approach shot to fly three yards shorter or longer. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider how demanding the greens are at Shinnecock, it can be the difference between a birdie and bogey. If you want to shoot a low score in a U.S. Open, you need to understand exactly where the wind is blowing from and how it will affect your shot. At Shinnecock, that changes with virtually every swing.

Land

To put a bow on the natural elements, Shinnecock’s exceptional land creates a wide range of challenges for golfers. These include uneven lies in the fairway, elevation changes (both up and down), and tilted greens. The course’s architect, William Flynn, was known for his ability to use natural landforms in his designs. An easy-to-see example of this dynamic is the par-4 ninth, which plays nearly 45 feet uphill. That’s a lot! The tee shot also requires a player to hit into an undulating fairway, so not only do you have to hit an approach shot 45 feet uphill, you will likely have a tricky uneven lie — and wind — to contend with.

There are no other championship-caliber courses in America that possess as many strong natural traits (sand, wind, and land) as Shinnecock Hills. These factors would make a great test on their own, but Shinnecock also adds some unique design features to the equation.

Short Grass and Crowned Greens

In 2024, much of the talk about Pinehurst No. 2 centered on the course’s “turtleback greens,” which repel balls in all directions when shots come in even slightly offline. I wouldn’t say Shinnecock’s greens are quite as extreme, but some of them have similar qualities. And in a few cases, they are even more terrifying.

When a ball gets near the edge of a green at Shinnecock Hills, it’s likely going to roll off and far away from where a player was trying to hit it. It’s not going to stop until it finds level ground or long grass. That makes golf really hard.

Enhancing these dynamics — and admittedly this is not a sexy topic — is the grass. Shinnecock’s time-tested mixture of bent, poa annua, and rye is a fast surface with very little friction; Pinehurst’s primary grass is Bermuda, which is known to be slow and sticky. So Shinnecock’s turf makes the repelling nature of the greens even more impactful.

Angled Fairways

Everyone is going to talk about how wide Shinnecock’s fairways are for the U.S. Open, particularly after the USGA said last week they will play at the normal width for members. But the places where you want to hit approach shots from still feel narrow.

Most of Shinnecock’s fairways sit at an angle to the tee shot instead of straight ahead. This asks players not only to hit a precise line, but also to consider how far they are going to hit it. On a straight hole, if you miss your starting line by 10 yards, it doesn’t really matter. When a fairway is angled like Shinnecock’s, you will likely miss the fairway because the ball will run through the fairway on the safer side, or miss the fairway short because it doesn’t carry far enough. (See the graphic below.)

Sloped Greens

Because of Shinnecock’s incredible land, a lot of the greens are benched into big hills. These greens are not as intricate and undulating as, say, Augusta National’s, but what they have is a lot of slope. Most of Shinnecock’s greens have a predominant pitch, so when you hit a shot 20 feet away but pin high (as pros often do, particularly in a U.S. Open), the ensuing putt will often break more than 10 feet. The key to playing well, then, is leaving yourself straight, uphill putts — and when the flags are tucked, as they almost always are at a U.S. Open, that’s extremely hard to do. If you want putts without significant break, you have to take on far more risk than the best players in the world are comfortable with. As a result, you will see a lot of putts where players are forced to be very defensive.

Blindness

Many shots at Shinnecock are either blind or semi-blind. You might tell yourself after a practice round that you know what’s there, but in golf, you always have to battle your subconscious. When a shot is fully blind or semi-blind, it’s just hard to commit and swing freely. Not being able to visualize your target can make you unintentionally bail out to a safe spot. And at Shinnecock, the safe spots frequently turn out to be the worst spots.

Because of all of these elements, I think this golf course is going to be tremendously fun to watch, especially if you like seeing pros attempt difficult shots. There are very few places where you can relax over the course of 18 holes at Shinnecock. Every shot is like a move in chess — it starts a chain reaction of other potential outcomes.

Enjoy the week and dive into more of our coverage of Shinnecock Hills and the 2026 U.S. Open here.