SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Was that a … water bottle? A water bottle tossed 30 feet in the air from the middle of the 10th fairway? One of those silver, aluminum water bottles the USGA gives out at the U.S. Open?
Yes, a water bottle was flying through the air, and multiple times at that, because Xander Schauffele’s caddie was scouting Shinnecock Hills’ par-4 10th hole. Why was he using a flying water bottle, you ask? You can read along about that and four other early observations from the U.S. Open below.
Caddie Cooperation
Really, Austin Kaiser was just trying to communicate with his fellow looper, Joe Greiner, who stood back on the 10th tee, about 240 yards away. The 10th hole is unlike any other at Shinnecock, where big swooping mounds give way to a massive drop-off of fairway that slopes into a pit of turf. Adam Scott said it’s a unique one, having a wedge in and maybe feeling scared about it.
The goal? Get your tee ball down into that pit of short grass, making for a tiny, smooth wedge. The problem? Part of that fairway kicks right and into the rough. Schauffele’s hybrid ended up there Monday morning. On the left side, the rough cuts in along a bank and pushes balls toward a brutal bunker. They watched Chris Gotterup smash 5-wood in that direction, coming up short of the speed slot. So that’s why the water bottle was flung into the air. Kaiser stood on the downslope of 10, well out of eyesight from the tee box, but he was on the phone with Greiner, who stood on the tee with a range finder. Kaiser tossed the water bottle upward multiple times, up over the hill where Greiner could see it and clock the true, proper line for the center of the hidden part of the fairway, right where they wanted to land their tee balls. Whatever it takes to get the job done — that’s what caddies were out doing Monday afternoon at the U.S. Open.
Xander’s coy thoughts Tuesday morning? “That’s just Austin acting like he’s doing work.”
Will Monday matter?
We’re only a day and a half into U.S. Open week, and you’ve probably already consumed some wind content . Perhaps even some created by GOLF.com (embedded below). But that’s good — it was windy on Monday, only making an already brutally difficult course that much more impossible.
But was that wind … deceiving? The early discussion among caddies and a few players was that the northwesterly wind that ripped through the course Monday afternoon is an abnormal summer wind. And while it would be nice to see the befuddling course in its entirety — especially for the players who arrived late from Canada — it may not make the most sense to play the course in a wind you won’t see during the tournament. Viktor Hovland elected to just walk the front nine with a putter and two wedges, practicing chip shots around every green. Jordan Spieth played the 1st, 2nd and 3rd before cutting over to finish just a 6-hole afternoon loop on 7, 8 and 9.
Tuesday’s wind was roughly 90 degrees different on the compass, and Wednesday’s wind almost 180 degrees different from Monday. In other words, the guessing game is on when it comes to analyzing sightlines off the tee. (Hence Kaiser’s work with Greiner.) And Thursday’s first round is expected to see gusts north of 30 mph. It’s early, but the breeze is on everyone’s mind.
“Like Pinehurst”
The U.S. Open will go a lot of places in the next 20 years, but it is in the middle of perhaps the most perfect 4-year rota of proper Open sites: Pinehurst (’24), Oakmont (’25), Shinnecock and Pebble Beach (’27). Could it possibly get any better than that?
What I adore so much about that stretch is just how different each of those American classics can be. They’re all difficult in the heat of summer, but Pinehurst has its turtle-back greens and its fairways falling off into unpredictable waste areas. Oakmont has its sticky, calf-high rough and its lightning-fast greens. Pebble has the ocean, the morning mist, the constant breeze and those tiny greens. And Shinnecock? It has a bit of all that.
Plenty of its greens are crowned and incorporate much smaller pinable and landable zones, a la Pinehurst. I caught Billy Horschel making that comparison during his practice round with William Mouw on Monday afternoon. The fairways are much wider than Oakmont’s but plenty of trouble lurks if you miss there, and in particular if you miss in obviously wrong spots (like on the bad side of bunkers, where the fescue has been allowed to grow rampant. See: Left side of 1). The greens, like Oakmont, will be ramped up As Fast as Reasonably Possible by Thursday. And then there’s the breeze from the ocean. In short, Shinnecock has it all.
“All 15 clubs”
USGA executives have been sharing a new phrase the last few years. The USGA’s chief championships officer, John Bodenhamer, seems to like it the most. USGA tests should make you use all 15 clubs — the 14 in your bag and the one between your ears. You’ll hear Bodenhamer and/or CEO Mike Whan say those exact words sometime this week. But you can see it most clearly in how players handle their wedges.
One Tour equipment rep explained to GOLF.com how many players in the field are electing for low-bounce lob wedges to properly clip balls off Shinnecock’s tight, firm turf, and in most weeks as a pro golfer, that 60-degree wedge can be used just about everywhere else, too. But at Shinnecock, some players are electing to use 56-degree wedges from the bunkers more often. And the reason? The sand is different.
Because of the amount of wind Long Island receives, the sand is coarser than pros might see in, say, Pittsburgh during last year’s Open. Shinnecock needs a bit more rocks and shells in bunkers than you’d find at Riviera, where the Women’s Open was earlier this month. Otherwise, the constant breeze would lift it out of the traps, and they’d be refilling bunkers every few months. All of which means getting a predictable result for some takes a bit more oomph and a bit less loft. It’s the little things.
How aggressive do you want to be?
They say a U.S. Open is an exercise in patience. In biting back aggressiveness and hanging around. The problem of that aggressiveness, of course, is on full display at Shinnecock. Look no further than Alejandro Tosti’s Monday visit to the 7th green.
The 7th green is infamous. It had to be watered mid-round in past Opens, just to slow it down — and maybe keep it alive. But from the back side of that green, where Alejandro Tosti’s ultra-aggressive approach settled Monday afternoon, we witnessed why you don’t go flag-hunting.
From about 30 feet away, Tosti hit the same chip 10 times, trying to find the sweet spot of landing zone. It wasn’t obvious. If his ball landed on the green, it was rolling 20 feet by. If his spinny pitch landed a yard short of the dance floor, it was staying short of the green entirely. If he landed it perfectly one foot short of the green, it had enough pace to curl near the hole. Of those 10 tries, three got close and the rest would have been begging for a par-save. That’s why the middle of the green can be a happy place at Shinnecock.
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