June 19, 2026, 1:24 p.m. ET
A journalist flew in a helicopter to the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills to avoid Long Island traffic.The helicopter service, operated by BLADE Air Mobility, flies from Manhattan to the tournament in about 40 minutes.A one-way ticket for the helicopter flight costs approximately $1,480.The service is presented as a luxury alternative to the significant traffic delays on Route 27 during the event.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The last time I went to the U.S. Open, in 2022 at The Country Club outside Boston, I was thrilled because Avis gave me a rental-car upgrade.
Friday morning, the upgrade was to a slightly different class of transportation.
Instead of crawling east on Route 27 toward Shinnecock Hills, checking Waze like a man trying to decode the Dead Sea Scrolls, I climbed into a helicopter in Manhattan and flew to the U.S. Open.
Route 27 is known as Sunrise Highway, which is a lovely name until you try to use it during U.S. Open week on eastern Long Island. By the time the sun is fully up, the road can feel less like a highway and more like a very long, very scenic holding pen. Fans, media members and players have been grumbling about the traffic for days, and honestly, it is hard to blame them. Shinnecock Hills is one of America’s great golf courses, but getting there can test your patience before the course has a chance to test anyone’s short game.
The Hamptons are beautiful. The Hamptons are also, at times, a transportation experiment designed by someone who thinks “one road in, one road out” builds character.
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Thanks to Peter Millar, I was invited to take a seat on a helicopter operated by BLADE Air Mobility, the official helicopter service provider and air mobility partner for the 2026 U.S. Open. BLADE is flying passengers from its Manhattan lounges to a landing area near Shinnecock Hills, where guests are met and transported by golf cart toward the course gates.
Flight time from Manhattan to Shinnecock: roughly 40 minutes.
The price: $1,480 each way.
That number is important because it immediately separates this from any practical conversation about tournament transportation. This is not a tip for how to save time getting to the U.S. Open. This is not a hack. This is not “leave early, bring coffee and thank me later.”
This is a helicopter.
It is also, depending on your point of view, either the most over-the-top way imaginable to get to a golf tournament or the only transportation plan that makes any sense once you have watched Long Island traffic transform grown adults into dashboard philosophers.
The experience starts before the rotors spin. There is the lounge, the check-in, the other passengers trying to act casual, and the strange realization that instead of packing a patience sandwich and joining the eastbound crawl, you are about to lift above it.
Then the doors close, the city drops away, and New York becomes a map.
Manhattan gives way to Queens. Queens gives way to Long Island. The traffic that feels so personal from behind a windshield becomes abstract from above, just red lines, tiny cars and brake lights stretching toward golf’s national championship.
Somewhere down there, someone is wondering if he should have left at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5.
Not us.
David Dusek is a senior writer at Golfweek and writes primarily about golf equipment, technology, and PGA Tour analytics.