The test of champions returns to Shinnecock Hills
The 2026 US Open has the field, the course, and the storylines to produce one of the great major championships of the decade. Here’s everything you need to know before Thursday.
You could watch every shot at Shinnecock Hills this week and still struggle to explain why scores balloon the way they do. The fairways are wide — wider than any US Open in recent memory. The rough, by USGA standards, is manageable. And yet by Sunday afternoon, a course that looked conquerable on Thursday will have eliminated every player in the field who lost focus for even half a hole. Shinnecock doesn’t punish the wild swing so much as the wandering mind.
The 126th US Open arrives with a genuinely open leaderboard and a set of storylines that couldn’t have been scripted better. Rory McIlroy won back-to-back Masters titles. An Englishman nobody outside the dedicated tour-follower would have named won the PGA Championship. And Scottie Scheffler — the world’s best player — stands one win away from the career Grand Slam, on his 30th birthday. Settle in.
This US Open will be won on iron play and short-game scrambling — not driving distance. Shinnecock’s wide fairways are a deliberate red herring. The real test is precise shot-making into fast, contoured greens, accurate wind reading, and the composure to stay patient when the course turns hostile.
Shinnecock Hills: America’s greatest links test
Founded in 1891 and sitting perched between Peconic Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern tip of Long Island, Shinnecock Hills is one of the five founding clubs of the USGA. The layout players face this week is largely the work of architect William Flynn, whose 1931 redesign created a routing that embraces the coastal wind rather than fights it — holes running across natural ridges and open terrain in a triangular arrangement so that no matter which way the wind blows, you’ll face headwinds, crosswinds, and downwind holes all in the same round. There’s no escaping the elements here. That’s the whole point.
What makes Shinnecock genuinely fascinating is how it exposes the gap between ball-striking and course management. Wide fairways invite aggression off the tee, but the premium here is the approach — the angle you create, the wind you’ve read, the miss you’ve planned for before you’ve even started your backswing. Players who think well score well. Players who react do not.
You’re on the 17th tee — the Eden hole — on Sunday afternoon. The wind has swung round. What was a comfortable 7-iron in calm Thursday air is now a 4-iron, maybe a punched 5. You need to start the ball 15 yards right of the flag and trust the slope to drag it down to the pin. Get a club short and you’re in the front bunker. Overcook it and you’re three-putting from 40 feet down a slope that doesn’t stop. One poor decision here can turn a tied lead into a two-shot deficit by the time you leave the 17th green. That’s Shinnecock.
The course in numbers
June 19–22, 2026 · Southampton, New York · 156-player field · $21m+ total prize fund.
The USGA has set the fairways at over 40 yards wide on average — the widest in recent US Open memory. Don’t mistake that for generosity. Even from the short grass, players must calculate wind direction, fairway slope, and the precise angle of attack into greens that punish anything above the hole. The greens will start around 11 on the stimpmeter, slower than recent US Opens — Oakmont last year ran at 15.5 — but the contours are severe enough that speed is the wrong thing to worry about. Position is everything.
Holes to watch
The season so far
This has been one of the more compelling major season openers in recent memory. Rory McIlroy became the first player to win back-to-back Masters titles since Tiger Woods in 2001–02, completing a resurgence that has genuinely changed how people talk about his legacy. Then at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, Aaron Rai — an English tour pro whose name wouldn’t have featured on most people’s pre-tournament shortlists — ran away from a leaderboard packed with major champions to win by three shots and become the first Englishman to lift the Wanamaker Trophy since Jim Barnes in 1919.
Meanwhile, world number one Scottie Scheffler has been a relentless presence near the top of leaderboards all season without yet converting at a major. He arrives at Shinnecock one win away from what would be a historic career Grand Slam — and the final round falls on his 30th birthday. The script writes itself, which in major championship golf is usually a warning, not a guarantee.
Who to follow this week
Favourites
Contenders
Dark horses
The Woodies’ Workshop verdict
Shinnecock Hills will not reward shortcuts or false contenders. This is a course for complete players — precise drivers who think, iron players who can shape shots both ways, and short-game artists who can scramble when the wind turns hostile. The wide fairways are a red herring: the real damage is done on and around the greens, where even a small miss can cascade into dropped shots faster than anywhere else in major championship golf.
Scheffler’s case is hard to argue with on paper. But Shinnecock specifically has a habit of sorting the leaderboard differently than the form book suggests — it’s produced more surprising champions than almost any US Open venue. Keep a close eye on Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick as the week develops. European players with links experience and strong iron play consistently suit this layout, and both arrive at better prices than the frontrunners. McIlroy will be in the mix. Rai will not be intimidated. And Koepka, if fit, will scare everyone.
Scottie Scheffler to win — the logic is overwhelming, and the birthday narrative is irresistible. Tommy Fleetwood each-way — course form, links game, a putter that’s finally cooperating. Matt Fitzpatrick for value — a former major champion at exactly this type of demanding, precision-first venue, at a price that flatters him.