Shinnecock Hills, a 'cathedral of golf,' on track for U.S. Open in June in Southampton

J.J. Spaun had never been to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, widely known as one of the “cathedrals” of the game, before U.S. Open media day on Tuesday — 44 days before the 126th rendition of the championship begins at the Southampton course.

Spaun, the reigning U.S. Open champion, was at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday preparing for this week’s Truist Championship. But he took a quick detour for a day at Shinnecock Hills, saying: “I wouldn't miss it. To be the defending champion and to come up and experience this, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

So to Spaun, the No. 9 player in the world, what makes Shinnecock Hills a cathedral?

“It's big. It's challenging,” he said. “It's got all the aspects in a tough championship venue that you could ask for.”

As Spaun returns to his normal PGA Tour schedule this week, preparations will continue across the board at Shinnecock Hills. Eric Steimer, the U.S. Open’s senior director for the United States Golf Association, manages everything outside the ropes. He told Newsday that Tuesday marked “40 days and 40 nights” until gates open to fans at 7 a.m. on June 15 for the first practice round.

“It's been a culmination of a lot of planning,” Steimer said. “So we signed the agreement to bring the 2026 U.S. Open back to Shinnecock Hills close to about seven years ago, and really the planning started then. It's a major event. It's a major undertaking. We've seen terrific support from New York State, from Suffolk County, and even from the Town of Southampton, who's been phenomenal partners to really bring this championship to life.

“Still got some unfinished business. Still some buttoning up to do here on site, but we're getting close, and we're going to be ready for June 15.”

A lot of the big structures, like hospitality tents, already are in place, but Steimer said construction will be done “right around June 14.”

Steimer, as he told Newsday in January, reiterated that the Long Island Rail Road is the best and most efficient way to get to and from Shinnecock Hills. While he said the USGA still is working with the LIRR on finalizing schedules, the organization is encouraging fans to take the Montauk Branch to the temporary platform that is being built across the street from Shinnecock Hills and adjacent to Stony Brook’s Southampton campus, which is walking distance to the course.

The championship’s general parking lot, as U.S. Open assistant director John Ryan Celiberti told Newsday in March, will be at Calverton Airfield just outside of Riverhead, about 25 miles from Shinnecock Hills. From there, there will be a contraflow lane with an express shuttle to and from the course.

USGA CEO Mike Whan also announced plans that the USGA, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Golf Association and Shinnecock Hills, is taking to benefit Eastern Long Island in the future, long after the U.S. Open ends. It includes enhancing four public courses — Indian Island Golf Club, Timber Point Golf Club, Bergen Point Golf Club and West Sayville Golf Club — and a “pretty significant donation” to the Boys & Girls Club of Shinnecock Nation.

Inside the ropes, the par-70, 7,440-yard course designed by William Flynn is expected to play as tough as any U.S. Open course. Shinnecock Hills is subject to 30-plus-mph winds that play a significant factor. John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, estimated that this year’s U.S. Open fairways, at an average of 48 yards wide, will be the widest in 75 years.

In the four previous U.S. Opens held at Shinnecock Hills in the modern era, only three players have scored under par after 72 holes: 2004 winner Retief Goosen (4-under), 2004 runner-up Phil Mickelson (2-under) and 1986 winner Raymond Floyd (1-under).

“Our course always reveals a truly deserved champion,” said Bernard Bailey, the vice president of Shinnecock Hills.

Bodenhamer posed the question: “What is a cathedral of the game?” To which he answered himself: “Well, it really is a place that the ghosts in the past matter. Some of the ghosts are still living. They’re not ghosts yet.”

Bodenhamer brought up other U.S. Open venues like Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania — where Bobby Jones completed the Grand Slam in 1930 and Ben Hogan won in 1950 just 16 months after being severely injured in an automobile accident — and Oakmont Country Club in Plum and Oakmont, Pennsylvania, where Jack Nicklaus defeated Arnold Palmer in a playoff in 1962 and where Spaun won his first major last year.

Of course, count Shinnecock among those cathedrals.

“There's no doubt,” Whan said, “that there's going to be some new history written here in 2026.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.