US OPEN PREVIEW JUNE 18-21
HOLE 7
Gusting winds off Peconic Bay and the nearby Atlantic Ocean hit players dif- ferently as the holes change direction, and scores are ultimately sorted at the crowned, sloping greens that can cru- elly deflect weak and imprecise shots. It often feels like the closer you get to the hole at Shinnecock Hills, the harder the golf becomes. Getting the ball into the bottom of the cup is as challenging as it is at any course in the country. The first iterations of golf laid out at Shinnecock Hills in the 1890s – by Scottish professionals Willie Davis (1891) and Willie Dunn (1893 and 1895) – played primarily on the south side of the clubhouse and crossed back and forth over the Long Island Railroad. In 1916 the club hired C B Macdonald, who was also a Shinnecock member, and his
a fixture inside the top five on our rank- ing of America’s 100 Greatest Courses, wasn’t finalised until 1931 under the di- rection of architect William Flynn. Fly- nn’s course sprawls across 81 hectares beneath the gaze of the iconic Stanford White-designed clubhouse, looping through a tumbling, links-like section of fescue and sage before heading into a steeper, more exciting set of dunes on the second nine. Though ample fairways provide
SHINNECOCK HILLS GOLF Club is one of the founding fa- thers of American golf. The
members were the first in the US to in- corporate their club, and they began playing their Southampton site in 1891 on two nine-hole courses, one desig- nated for men and the other built spe- cifically for female players. As one of the five charter members of the United States Golf Association, Shinnecock hosted both the US Amateur and the US Open in 1896, just the second year each event was played. The golf course morphed and mi- grated around the property in the early years, expanding first to 12 holes, then 18, and later into a completely different 18 that overlapped sections of the la- dies course. The layout we know today,
room to manoeu- vre, the best ap- proach angles are reserved for players who can drive the ball long enough to reach the rare level sections of grass.
AERIAL ATTACK The famous
Redan seventh at Shinnecock is a rare version where you must fly it to the green.
70 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JUNE 2026
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