Updated

Updated · Yahoo Sports · Jun 18

20-30 mph Winds Batter U.S. Open Field at Shinnecock as 18th-Hole Drives Average 268 Yards

Updated

Updated · Yahoo Sports · Jun 18

20-30 mph Winds Batter U.S. Open Field at Shinnecock as 18th-Hole Drives Average 268 Yards

Q: After past U.S. Open fiascos, have the USGA's changes finally tamed Shinnecock's brutal wind?

No. The USGA appears to have made Shinnecock fairer, but not gentler; the wind is still the course’s defining force. Thursday’s opening round showed that clearly. Gusts in the 20-30 mph range, with stronger bursts, distorted distances, trajectories and even short putts. Scottie Scheffler hit one drive 370 yards downwind and another similar shot only 249 yards into the wind. On the 16th, Rory McIlroy’s high drive was knocked into a bunker while Tommy Fleetwood’s lower flight produced a birdie chance. Even on the greens, putts inside 10 feet fell at just 78%, well below the PGA Tour norm. What has changed is the USGA’s setup philosophy after the 2004 and 2018 controversies, when Shinnecock’s greens became too firm and fast in heavy wind. This year the governing body slowed green speeds to about 10.5 on the Stimpmeter, widened fairways, chose more wind-aware hole locations and planned syringing between waves to keep surfaces alive and consistent. John Bodenhamer has said the aim is not to “brutalize” the course but to keep it fair. That matters, because Shinnecock was never going to be “tamed.” Its exposed, treeless design was built to engage the wind from multiple directions, and history shows that when the breeze rises, scoring rises with it. The evidence so far suggests the USGA has reduced the risk of another setup fiasco. It has not neutralized the wind; it has simply managed the course better around it.

1 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Jun 18

20-30 mph gusts turned Shinnecock’s opening round into a survival test, sharply changing how holes played and shrinking distance on shots hit into the wind.
Scottie Scheffler’s driver went 370 yards downwind on the par-4 third but only 249 yards into the wind on the fourth, illustrating the course’s huge hole-to-hole swing.
On the 614-yard 16th, Tommy Fleetwood’s lower, 176.4-mph drive cleared a 253-yard bunker carry and led to birdie, while Rory McIlroy’s higher 186.4-mph tee shot stalled and ended in bogey.
The seventh green rejected approaches all day: fewer than a third of the 156-man field held it, 27 balls landed but would not stay, and only 28 of 74 players who missed saved par.
The wind also reached the greens and finishing hole, cutting average drives on 18 to 268 yards with no tee shot past 295, while putts inside 10 feet on the fifth dropped to a 78% make rate from the PGA Tour’s usual 88%.