The USGA is making a last-minute course setup change ahead of the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, slowing green speeds to the mid-10s on the Stimpmeter to guard against a dangerous wind forecast. It will be the first time a U.S. Open has been played at green speeds below 11 since Corey Pavin won at Shinnecock in 1995.
USGA Chief Championship Officer John Bodenhamer announced the changes Wednesday on the eve of the 126th U.S. Open, after the USGA’s meteorology team presented new wind models late Thursday night. “That’s what changed everything,” Bodenhamer said.
Sustained southwest winds of 12 to 24 mph are forecast for Thursday beginning around 10:30 a.m., with gusts exceeding 40 mph through the afternoon. Saturday brings another round of high winds from the west/northwest, with gusts above 30 mph. Original target green speeds had been set between 11.5 and 12 on the Stimpmeter.
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Among the specific measures the USGA will take: syringing the greens before play during all four rounds and between morning and afternoon waves on Thursday and Friday; dialing green speeds back to the mid-10s; more relaxed hole locations; and extra caution on the par-3 seventh and par-3 11th holes. Morning tee times for the first two rounds have also been moved up roughly 30 minutes, starting at 6:35 a.m., to allow the maintenance staff time to apply water between waves.
Rory McIlroy had already flagged earlier in the week that greens running around 11 on the Stimpmeter was plenty fast enough. “I really don’t think they need to get much faster,” McIlroy said. “If they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens.”
Bodenhamer described syringing as a light misting applied to the putting surface. “Think about it as when you go into the grocery store and you go into the produce department and reach for that head of lettuce and that little mist comes on above and hits your hand,” he said. “That’s all we’re doing to the putting greens. It doesn’t impact playability. It hydrates the leaf blade. When it evaporates, it keeps it cool enough so we don’t lose the friction on the putting greens.”
The USGA’s heightened caution stems directly from two problematic U.S. Opens previously held at Shinnecock. In 2004, the par-3 seventh hole was declared unplayable mid-round after greens dried out to the point where balls could not stay still. In 2018, similar conditions late on Saturday prompted then-USGA CEO Mike Davis to acknowledge the setup had gone too far, after Daniel Berger and Tony Finau shot 66 in the early wave while the final five groups combined to go 67-over.
McIlroy noted that conditions at Shinnecock can shift fast. “It’s a golf course where it can turn very quickly,” he said. “You get a day like yesterday with a lot of wind and dry, clear conditions, and I think we’re just going to have to be mindful of that as the week goes on.”
“My experience… I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years with the USGA the last 16, and I have never seen a place like Shinnecock Hills when you get those drying conditions,” Bodenhamer said. “This place just dries down like nowhere else I’ve ever experienced, and we need to watch it and be very careful.”
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Bodenhamer acknowledged the difficulty of making the call. “For a USGA guy my whole life, my dream was always to play in and win the U.S. Open,” he said. “To sit back here and talk about hydrating greens, slowing green speeds, and modifying hole locations, that’s hard to do. But I’ll tell you what, I have great respect for this cathedral of the game and about these great players.”
He said the course will still provide a stiff test. “We could brutalize this place the next few days if we wanted to,” Bodenhamer said. “That’s not what we’re about. We really want it to be fair, and we want it to be what Shinnecock Hills has always been. It will be tough enough. We have pulled every lever that we can to make it fair.”
The 126th U.S. Open begins Thursday, June 19, at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York.
