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\nWatering the greens has always been a big talking point at Shinnecock<\/p>\n
There are few people more qualified to talk about the challenges posed by Shinnecock Hills than Jimmy Dunne.<\/p>\n
Born and raised on Long Island into a family with Irish roots, the highly successful financier reckons that he has played the course over a thousand times. His other memberships reportedly include Augusta National, Pine Valley and Seminole.<\/p>\n
He has previously qualified for the US Senior Amateur. He has carded a 63 at Shinnecock, where the US Open starts tomorrow, and has been a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board. He’s mates with Rory McIlroy and his dad Gerry.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, the first time I ever played Shinnecock, back in 2014, I played with Jimmy”, McIlroy told RT\u00c9 Sport.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve played a lot of rounds here with him. It\u2019s like a lot of links courses at home, if you play to the front edges of greens, it\u2019s never going to be a bad thing. If you start missing at the sides or over the back, you start making life difficult for yourself.”<\/p>\n
Difficult might be an understatement.<\/p>\n
In the four US Opens played at Shinnecock since 1986, only three players out of 624 have broken par – Raymond Floyd (one-under par in 1986), Retief Goosen (four-under par in 2004) and Phil Mickelson (two-under par in 2004).<\/p>\n
\nWatering the greens has always been a big talking point at Shinnecock<\/p>\n
In 2004, the green on the par-three seventh was so dry, crisp and impossible to hold that water had to be sprayed on it between groups to make it at all playable on the final day.<\/p>\n
Phil Mickelson was so disgruntled in 2018 that he deliberately hit a moving ball as his previous putt gathered speed beyond the hole on 13th. Ultimately a ten went on his card.<\/p>\n
Mickelson won\u2019t be seen on the grounds this year but among the leading contenders are, of course, Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy, ranked one and two in the world respectively.<\/p>\n
Going with the increasing trend, both did some of their scouting well in advance with visits to the course in the last fortnight.<\/p>\n
For Scheffler, it\u2019s a first chance to complete the career grand slam following his win at the Open Championship last year.<\/p>\n
“For me, would it be a dream to win the U.S. Open? Of course,” said the American.<\/p>\n
“But at the end of the day, the grand slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far.<\/p>\n
“So when it comes to this golf tournament I’m going to step on the first tee and remind myself I’ve done everything I possibly could in order to play well, and now it’s just a matter of going out there and trying to execute and kind of going back to enjoying the competition versus feeling like you have to win for some reason.”<\/p>\n
McIlroy, of course, already has the slam but there\u2019s part of him that would love to win a more traditional US Open.<\/p>\n
“I think Shinnecock is the best championship test in the country,” McIlroy opined.<\/p>\n
“I think it tests all aspects of the game: driving, iron play, you need to have your wits about you on the greens. It’s a lot of strategy, thoughtfulness. I love that I\u2019ve won a US Open but in my mind it wasn\u2019t in typical US Open conditions.<\/p>\n
“Congressional (2011) was pretty wet and it sort of played more like a PGA than a US Open. If I go out there and execute my game plan, I fell like I\u2019ll have a good chance.”<\/p>\n
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\nGraeme McDowell is a former US Open champion, but needed to qualify to make this year’s tournament<\/p>\n
McIlroy won by eight on a total of 16-under par at Congressional. You won\u2019t see 16-under par this week.<\/p>\n
The next likeliest Irish winner is Shane Lowry who is on a run of consistent but not spectacular finishes and it has him somewhat perplexed.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, I feel like there\u2019s a piece of the puzzle missing somewhere. I\u2019ve been trying to figure it out and I don\u2019t know what it is.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you feel like ‘I\u2019d love to not be getting results from doing something really bad because at least you know that\u2019s what it is. If I wasn\u2019t driving well, if I wasn\u2019t putting well, I\u2019d love if that was the case because then I could just work on that.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s been difficult, I haven\u2019t left the golf course on a Sunday evening happy in a long time. It does eat you up, but you get back up on Monday morning and go at it again and that\u2019s all you can do.”<\/p>\n
P\u00e1draig Harrington is in the field as reigning US Senior Open champion, a title which he will defend in a fortnight\u2019s time, and Graeme McDowell completes the Irish contingent, not as a former champion (2010) but because he came through pre-qualifying. Both would have to be considered long shots for ultimate success here.<\/p>\n
Among other Europeans, Matt Fitzpatrick has to rank extremely highly. He\u2019s the most recent non-US winner (Brookline, 2022), he is enjoying a brilliant 2026 season and isn\u2019t looking for any let-up from the USGA, who stage this Open.<\/p>\n
“I really like the golf course. It’s looking great already. I\u2019m actually a little bit disappointed that they’re out there watering it right now,” Fitzpatrick said on Monday.<\/p>\n
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\nMatt Fitzpatrick is one of the in-form Europeans ahead of the US Open<\/p>\n
“I think you’ve obviously got to be in control of your ball flight, I think that’s the biggest thing. When the wind is this strong in pretty much every direction, with the holes that you’re facing, you’ve got to be able to have a lot of shots in your armoury.<\/p>\n
“I feel like it’s a great golf course for that, and it allows for that. It allows for shot making. I think that’s what makes it a great test overall.”<\/p>\n
Ahead of this year\u2019s championship, Dunne provided the commentary for a flyover of each hole. Highlights included: “Number 2 is a lion of a par three; number 7 is a Redan (narrow green, sloping from front to back), as difficult as there is; number 9 is a monster – if you go beyond the hole it\u2019s brutal, left is brutal, right is brutal; number 11, if you hit it too far it\u2019s dead.”<\/p>\n
You get the picture.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the most recent US Open at Shinnecock, the ultimate winner was Brooks Koepka, who was five-over par and six shots behind a group of five after the first round. Tommy Fleetwood closed with a 63 to finish just one shot behind.<\/p>\n
There will be many swings and roundabouts but one thing is sure – the winner this Sunday evening will surely show a mixture of patience and brilliance over the next four days.<\/p>\n
Selected tee times for Thursday and Friday, in Irish time (* denotes 10th tee start):<\/p>\n
12.19pm \/ 6.14pm*: Padraig Harrington (Ire), Miles Russell (USA), Cameron Smith (Aus)<\/p>\n
12.19pm* \/ 6.14pm: Graeme McDowell (NI), Patrick Rodgers, Keith Mitchell (both USA)<\/p>\n
12.30pm \/ 6.25pm*: Brooks Koepka, Cameron Young, Chris Gotterup (all USA)<\/p>\n
12.52pm* \/ 6.47pm: Rory McIlroy (NI), Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)<\/p>\n
1.14pm \/ 7.09pm: Scottie Scheffler, Mason Howell, JJ Spaun (all USA)<\/p>\n
6.25pm* \/ 12.30pm: Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)<\/p>\n
6.47pm* \/ 12.52pm: Shane Lowry (Ire), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Alex Smalley (USA)<\/p>\n
7.09pm* \/ 1.14pm: Justin Rose (Eng), Jordan Spieth (USA), Jon Rahm (Spa)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are few people more qualified to talk about the challenges posed by Shinnecock Hills than Jimmy Dunne.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-505373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}