ROAD TO THE MAJORS
By Phil Carlucci
Two of the most famous shots in U.S Open history took flight, 72 years apart, on opposite ends of Long Island’s South Shore with strikingly similar results.
Beside Inwood Country Club’s 18th fairway, a small plaque sits in a stretch of rough near the New York City border. It marks the spot where 21-year-old Bobby Jones belted a hickory 2-iron from 200 yards over water to 6 feet, effectively clinching a 1923 U.S. Open victory. The amazing approach put Bobby Cruickshank in the unfortunate position of having to hole out from the fairway to extend what had been a wild, back-and-forth 18-hole playoff.
And out in the Hamptons, Met Area golf writers and photographers at a U.S. Open preview last September gathered around a white dot 220 yards from the hole on No. 18 at Shinnecock Hills. There, in 1995, Corey Pavin delivered a glorious shot of his own. His everyman-style 4-wood through the East End winds hopped twice and rolled next to the pin, leaving Greg Norman, the 54-hole co-leader, to face Cruickshank’s futile dilemma. Pavin watched live in the NBC booth as Norman fired his last-ditch approach into the left rough.
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” Pavin said.
The trees that framed the background of Pavin’s scintillating shot are gone, and the green has since been stretched and tweaked, but the sandy hills of Southampton, N.Y. remain the same. And they have been a proving ground for golf champions for 130 years. This June they will crown a U.S. Open champion for the sixth time. The club will also host the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open back-to-back in 2036.
Ann Liguori remains mesmerized by the “aura” of Shinnecock Hills, a blend of its history, its Stanford White clubhouse, and its demanding layout. The Hamptons-based golf writer and longtime radio host has seen all four modern U.S. Opens there. “Everything about Shinnecock Hills gives me goosebumps,” she says.
Passing the U.S. Open test involves conquering William Flynn’s brilliant 1931 design, of course, and the never-ceasing Atlantic gusts that sweep Long Island’s South Fork. But much of the challenge at Shinnecock hinges on how the world’s best players balance competitive fire with strategic restraint. Brent Paladino, the USGA’s senior director of championship administration, points to Brooks Koepka’s decision on Sunday in 2018 to play a deep miss on the par-3 11th into a side bunker rather than attack the hole from the fescue. An aggressive play gone wrong likely would have cost Koepka the championship. On a course that presses players on every stroke, “you have to know when to take your medicine and not take the hero shot,” Paladino says.
The goal this year, a sentiment shared by both Paladino and Shinnecock Hills course superintendent Jonathan Jennings, is to simply “let Shinnecock be Shinnecock.”
For decades, however, such a statement would have been meaningless to anyone outside the small group of club members and their guests. That’s what made the 1986 U.S. Open, the first one played on the Flynn course, so exceptional.
Spectators enjoyed a fabulous Sunday that briefly featured a nine-way tie for the lead. Chip Beck and Lanny Wadkins shot then-course-record 65s to finish tied for second. Raymond Floyd nearly matched them. Three back-nine birdies and a final-round 66 vaulted him to his fourth major.
It was among the last of what Herrmann calls the “boutique” U.S. Opens. The tournament still had the feel of a small-scale production even though it was the first the USGA ran both inside and outside the ropes. “We parked across the street and walked right onto the course,” he says.
The U.S. Open barely registered as a production of any kind when it initially traversed Shinnecock Hills in 1896. It served as the undercard to the more prestigious U.S. Amateur. The 36-hole Open was played in a single day, and a 78–74 by Scottish pro James Foulis on the original Shinnecock course was strong enough to finish three strokes clear of defending champion Horace Rawlins, who won the inaugural U.S. Open the year before at Newport Golf Club in Rhode Island.
Almost from its inception in 1891, Shinnecock established itself and Long Island as places that determine golf champions. In 1894 it hosted what might be the first attempt at a national professional championship. Five entrants, including Shinnecock’s original designer Willie Davis and course pro Willie Dunn, competed in “the best and most interesting match of its kind that has ever been held in this country,” as described by The New York Times. Dunn won the match and $150 on a course he had partially remodeled.
Within 30 years of the 1896 Open, Long Island clubs hosted more than a dozen major amateur and professional tournaments. Frances Griscom won the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Shinnecock in 1900, and the U.S. Open quickly returned to Long Island in 1902 at Garden City. But it did not come back to Shinnecock Hills until that week in June 1986.
A main story during the Saturday round in 1986 revolved around – sound familiar? – a heckler. Norman lost his three-stroke lead at No. 13, and a fan greeted him on the next fairway with shouts of “choker.” The Shark confronted him at the gallery ropes. “It was a big deal back then that one person yelled something at a pro,” says Herrmann. The dust-up and subsequent questions about it rattled Norman. He finished the tournament in 12th place.
So there Norman was in 1995, again in the lead through Saturday, again trying to fend off bogeys (and undoubtedly some commentary from the gallery) on Sunday. A three-over 73 allowed Pavin to stage his comeback and weave his joyous victory trot up No. 18 into U.S. Open lore.
The USGA would prefer that type of memorable image this June over the ones some fans associate with the 2004 and 2018 championships, when turbulent East End winds and challenging set ups on a firm course tested competitors.
Late on Sunday in 2004, Mickelson let his guard down for a moment and fumbled his long-sought U.S. Open breakthrough with a three-putt on No. 17. It took uncanny steadiness, especially with the putter, for Retief Goosen to win on a Sunday where the average score was nearly nine over par.
Mickelson’s putter headlines again in 2018. Mickelson’s swat at a moving putt on a bone-dry Saturday epitomized player protests about conditions and overshadowed the top of the leaderboard. Brooks Koepka tapped into Goosen’s resilience and putting mastery to capture his second straight U.S. Open title.
Liguori calls it the most impressive performance she’s covered at Shinnecock, especially given the looming presence of Tommy Fleetwood’s incredible Sunday 63 that locked him in place among the leaders before they even made the turn. “How he stayed calm, the way he was able to compartmentalize the intense noise, pressure and outrage, was remarkable to watch,” she says.
The USGA is calling this June’s championship the first to be played “without modifications” to Flynn’s design. That means a refocus on testing the world’s elite professionals against Shinnecock’s original wide fairways. No more squeezing the pros down tightened corridors. Instead, expect challenging new angles into green complexes and fescue areas that are closer to what Flynn laid out over the undulating hills nearly a century ago.
Photos courtesy of the USGA.