Golf365 Gallery: A look at US Open venue Shinnecock Hills

Michael Schmitt

We preview the venue for next week’s US Open, Shinnecock Hills, a links-style golf club in the northeastern United States.

Located in the town of Southampton on Long Island, New York, east of New York City, Shinnecock Hills can trace its roots back to the 19th century as the brain child of William K. Vanderbilt, Edward Meade and Duncan Cryder, who were inspired to create their own golf course in the United States after seeing Scotsman Willie Dunn’s handiwork at a resort in Southern France.

Willie Davis from the Royal Montreal Club designed a 12-hole course that opened in late summer 1891. Dunn would arrive in 1894 and add six more holes.

Members of Shinnecock Indian Nation helped build the course, which is on land they have laid claim to, and part of which remains in dispute to this day. An Indian reservation is situated nearby the course.

A piece of golfing history

The clubhouse was designed by Stanford White and built in 1892, making it the oldest golf clubhouse in the United States.

In 1896, Shinnecock hosted only the second U.S. Open ever, and this year it returns to host it’s fifth.

It last hosted the tournament 14 years ago, when it was won by South African Retief Goosen, who beat Phil Mickelson by two shots.

Eventual champion Retief Goosen walks off the 10th tee during the 2004 US Open

As you’d expect from a links-style course, Shinnecock was built on undulating terrain, and features naturalised dunes, scores of testing bunkers and challenging native fescues and blue stem roughs.

Here are a few more pictures to give you an idea of what the course has in store for the world’s best players next week.

No doubt the tournament staff will be going all out to have the course in pristine condition
Here’s a shot many players will be forced to make next week
A marker for the 17th tee signifying that the big boys are in town
A good idea of the kind of challenge that awaits the players next week
Shinnecock Hills has every kind of bunker and then some
The galleries were huge back in 2004. Expect the same this time around
A view of the 16th hole, flanked by a huge grandstand
Another view of the historic clubhouse in the background
The 18th green, where the title will likely be decided next weekend.