When Adam Scott makes majors history as blockbuster groupings revealed<\/a><\/p>\nGreg Norman with Lee Trevino during the 1986 US Open.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Norman brutally unravelled in a familiar fashion having played the final round with Lee Trevino flanked by police officers. <\/p>\n
Reports at the time suggested the extreme measure subdued the crowd with Norman receiving a more favourable reception in the final round. <\/p>\n
Another explanation for the shift would be that Norman flamed out, carding a five-over round to finish outside of the top-10 despite leading after 54 holes. Threat extinguished. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will rethink playing tournaments in this area,\u2019\u2019 Norman said at the time. \u201cI may not come back here unless there\u2019s an Open here.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
He\u2019d be far from the only non-American to take a dim view of playing on Long Island, New York. <\/p>\n
Golf\u2019s centuries-long obsession with grace and decorum is no match for New York sport fans, who routinely turn major events in the area into some sort of bloodsport. <\/p>\n
The playbook is simple: Gather in one spot with the American flag flying high, consume a few \u201clibations\u201d, as Tiger Woods likes to call them, and let it rip. <\/p>\n
Scott reflects on 100th straight major | 02:07<\/p>\n
If not drunk from the alcohol at \u2018Shinny\u2019, then fans may still be intoxicated from the New York Knicks winning the NBA championship for the first time in 53 years \u2014 triumph that sparked a borderline riot in midtown Manhattan this week. <\/p>\n
Scary, indeed. <\/p>\n
History tells us that if you\u2019re not from America, and you\u2019re posing a threat in this area, you\u2019re going to cop it. <\/p>\n
Last year, it was Rory McIlroy who was public enemy No.1 while playing the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, a one-hour\u2019s drive back towards Manhattan. <\/p>\n
Just like Norman \u2014 who McIlroy detests \u2014 the Northern Irishman was targeted throughout tournament. Beer was thrown at his wife, Erica, while the first tee MC shamelessly led a chant of \u201cf**k off, Rory\u201d over the PA system. <\/p>\n
Like Norman, McIlroy needed a police escort. And again, like his Australian foe, McIlroy eventually bit back, telling a fan to \u201cshut the f**\u2019 up\u201d, while he also needed to be restrained after the beer projectile. <\/p>\n
McIlroy had the last laugh with Europe winning 15-13, before he castigated the fans in the media. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cGolf has the ability to unite people. \u2026 It teaches you how to respect people. Sometimes this week, we didn\u2019t see that. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy needed a police escort and eventually bit back, telling a fan to \u201cshut the f**\u2019 up\u201d.Source: AFP<\/p>\n
A veteran tour caddie, speaking under the condition of anonymity about the rise of rowdy golf fans in the US, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage \u2014 that was a disgrace. You have to think that mobile phones should be banned like at the Masters,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat way, there would be way less bulls**t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow European great Sergio Garcia has been there before, too. <\/p>\n
At the 2002 US Open at Bethpage, he was mercilessly heckled in the final Sunday pairing with Woods. Fans sick of his lengthy pre-shot routine nicknamed him \u2018Waggle Boy\u2019, while some even raised their fists in a threatening action. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t control them, unfortunately,\u201d Garcia later said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people had to realise that we\u2019re trying as hard as we can out there, and sometimes they make some stupid comments.\u201d <\/p>\n
Back up the Interstate at Shinnecock Hills has been a similar story involving international players.<\/p>\n
In 2004, South African Retief Goosen outlasted Phil Mickelson in a deeply unpopular US Open victory.<\/p>\n
His crime was much the same as Norman\u2019s. He simply wasn\u2019t who fans wanted to win. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the things people were saying to me in my face from the green to the tee was very unsportsmanlike,\u201d he said after winning the major anyway. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut in a way, that made me more determined to fight my way through and win this thing and battle that negativity.\u201d <\/p>\n
His caddie, Colin Byrne added: \u201cAs the day went on, the crowd got mouthier and more aggressive. They were hurling a lot of abuse at Retief. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt made him more determined and stronger. He was feeding off of their bad energy. You could see more resilience. The harder you pushed him, the tougher he was.\u201d <\/p>\n
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is one of the founding members of the USGA.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u2018CARNAGE IS COMING\u2019 <\/p>\n
This week is likely to produce similar hostilities towards contending outsiders, of which there could be many with 68 non-Americans teeing it up. <\/p>\n
Daunting for that foreign contingent is that blocking out the external noise is merely a fraction of the challenge when it comes to playing a Shinnecock major. <\/p>\n
This place eats golfers alive. <\/p>\n
What makes Goosen\u2019s triumph 22 years ago all the more impressive was just how rare his under-par score was. <\/p>\n
Four times has Shinnecock Hills \u2013 one of the founding members of the USGA – hosted the US Open, doing so across three centuries in 1896, 1986, 2004 and 2018. <\/p>\n
Of 654 participants, just three players have ever walked off the 72nd hole with an under-par score \u2014 Goosen (four-under) and Mickelson (two-under) in 2004, and Raymond Floyd (one-under) in 1986. <\/p>\n
Shinnecock Hills is not a happy hunting ground.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Making Shinnecock Hills so hard is its links-style layout, which exposes the course to brutal winds. Meanwhile, the way holes are routed \u2014 in a series of loops, not back-and-forth or out-and-back \u2014 means players must constantly adapt to the wind playing in different directions. <\/p>\n
On a bad day, course superintendent Jonathan Jennings said wind gusts of 60 mph (97km\/h) are common. <\/p>\n
Monday appeared to be one of those days when the media tent was rocking and howling, while vision from practice rounds showed putts being blown right off windswept greens.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the rough is thick and long. The first cut alone this year is five inches long, according to McIlroy. <\/p>\n
Beyond that is the dreaded fescue, which was up to Bryson DeChambeau\u2019s knees as he attempted a practice shot on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Survive that, and players have to contend with greens which are heavily-sloped, slick, and have a colourful history with the US Open.<\/p>\n
In 2004, the seventh-green was watered mid-round after the par-three was deemed to have become unplayable. <\/p>\n
In 2018, groundskeepers infamously \u2018lost the greens\u2019 again, meaning they reached a point of no return in which they were so dry, and so fast, they that were borderline unplayable again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we were on the edge, but we\u2019ve surpassed it,\u201d former Masters champion Zach Johnson said when asked about the conditions. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty much gone \u2026 it\u2019s pretty much shot, which is unfortunate because it\u2019s, in my opinion, some of the best land and certainly one of the best venues in all of golf \u2026 but they\u2019ve lost the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhen you have a championship that comes down to sheer luck, that\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say that Mickelson also checked out that year.<\/p>\n
Phil Mickelson lost the plot.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
In a career of eyebrow-raising moments, one of Mickelson\u2019s most memorable came on his 48th birthday, during that year\u2019s third round, as he imploded on his way to an 11-over 81. <\/p>\n
On the 13th green, Mickelson missed a bogey putt before running after the ball and putting it again before it had come to a complete stop. <\/p>\n
He accepted a two-stroke penalty for hitting a moving ball \u2014 but the real punishment would be how disgusted the golf world was by his act. <\/p>\n
Mickelson ultimately said he was \u201cembarrassed and disappointed\u201d by his actions despite initially revealing after the round that it was a calculated act. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mean disrespect to anybody,\u201d Mickelson told Fox Sports. \u201cI know it\u2019s a two-shot penalty. At that time, I just didn\u2019t feel like going back and forth and hitting the same shot over. <\/p>\n
The moment Mickelson ran after and putted his ball before it stopped.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
\u201cI took the two-shot penalty and moved on. It\u2019s my understanding of the rules. I\u2019ve had multiple times where I\u2019ve wanted to do that. I just finally did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time and time again, Shinnecock is a place where even the most experienced pros lose their minds.<\/p>\n
The winning score that year was Brooks Koepka\u2019s one-over, while only four players had final scores better than five-over par. <\/p>\n
Whether that particular grind was a thing of beauty, or a step too far, is up for debate. <\/p>\n
Justin Rose walked off the course on the Mickelson day in 2018, and said: \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a golf course change that quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came off pretty much shell-shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN, however, wrote at the time that that year\u2019s US Open had \u201cturned into a beautifully absurd fiasco\u201d while arguing for the former. <\/p>\n
\u201cI loved every minute of it, even when it was stupid. And it was, at times, stupid,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt was also wildly entertaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m now convinced the USGA can\u2019t hold its biggest championship without it descending into some version of chaos.\u201d <\/p>\n
Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick would\u2019ve agreed, saying this week that he isn\u2019t a fan of \u2018birdie-fests\u2019, and that he enjoyed the test in 2018 having finished T12 at eight-over. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a big meltdown. \u2018Oh, they\u2019ve lost the golf course\u2019. I never believed they lost it. I don\u2019t think they lost the golf course at all here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
World’s best prepare for wild US Open | 01:07<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it was difficult, and the strength of this golf course is the difficulty of the greens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Either way, Shinnecock organisers appear fearful of a 2018 repeat. <\/p>\n
Greens \u2013 which measured a reasonably fast 11 on the stimpmetre last week \u2013 were still being heavily watered early this week, while fairways are slightly wider than they were eight years ago. <\/p>\n
The USGA\u2019s John Bodenhamer told the No Laying Up podcast that changes were a result of lessons learnt the hard way in 2004 and 2018. As a result, he said \u201cthere\u2019ll be some things different in 2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even so, whether it\u2019s the fans or the course, things have never been benign at the revered, but hostile, Long Island venue.<\/p>\n
Which is why Bodenhamer\u2019s comments still came with one warning that\u2019ll be sure to send shivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to let Shinnecock be Shinnecock,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Look out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year was 1986, and the fury within Greg Norman was rising. He was being heckled from pillar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[5487,64,63,755,24416,6920,1747,1205,756,6952,353011,85,1751,11766],"class_list":["post-743582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-adam-scott","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-greg-norman","tag-justin-rose","tag-pga-tour","tag-phil-mickelson","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sergio-garcia","tag-shinnecock-hills","tag-sports","tag-us-open","tag-usga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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