U.S. Open concludes Sunday, but how long until Shinnecock Hills feels back to normal?

What goes up must come down.

After the 126th U.S. Open comes to an end Sunday evening at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, local attention will shift to what comes next at Shinnecock Hills and the surrounding areas.

That process gets underway right after the tournament ends. Lynbrook native John Ryan Celiberti, the USGA’s assistant director of U.S. Open championships, told Newsday during Sunday’s final round that “we’ll hopefully get Shinnecock back to being Shinnecock probably [in] August.”

“The circus comes in, the circus goes out,” he said. “But the next two months are really a process of getting everything out. Next week or two, we'll get a lot of stuff out, mainly whatever the club wants us to get first. But we'll make sure that they get their parking lot back and slowly go throughout the rest of the golf course, and really get the facilities off the property. But another thing is, we'll also make sure that all of our parking lots have all that stuff off.

“We got the Palm Tree Festival over at Shinnecock Nation [next Saturday], so that's my priority tomorrow, is making sure all of our supplies are cleared off over the next two days, so that they can start preparing for their event. And then all the other lots, just making sure everything's back to normal.”

The construction that began in earnest in March — pushed back a bit because of the late-February blizzard, which produced snow drifts almost up to the second floor of the Shinnecock Hills clubhouse and completely shut down Tuckahoe Road — was completed with its final touches on June 14.

Celiberti — who has been living in Southampton for the past year and a half in preparation for the Open — said all the temporary infrastructure should be gone by mid-August, with the smaller structures quickly coming down and the larger tents, such as the village along the right side of the 17th fairway, taking longer. The USGA painted temporary roads on the course, and those probably will stay through the fall so they don’t interfere with golfers.

The good news for Shinnecock Hills members?

They’ll be able to get back on the course sometime next week, a few days after the Open ends. Forklifts and vehicles may be driving around to clean things up, but that shouldn’t interrupt play.

Summer life in The Hamptons is busier than normal anyways for natives of the East End of Long Island, but Celiberti hopes that they’ll be back to living their typical lives “very soon.” He said that Tuckahoe Road south of the course “probably” will reopen Monday afternoon, and Tuckahoe Road through the golf course will reopen Friday.

The eastbound traffic during the week was no surprise, either.

“Obviously the big thing is traffic out here, that’s number one,” Celiberti said.

The USGA and local authorities worked to create a “contraflow lane” on Route 27, which turns into County Road 39, for designated vehicles to get to and from the course. That was important to avoid “The Trade Parade” of vehicles that come out to The Hamptons on a daily basis.

Additional Long Island Rail Road services also ran to the temporary Shinnecock Hills platform, built across the street from the course — adjacent to Stony Brook’s Southampton campus — and connected via a pedestrian bridge.

While there certainly were hiccups with the LIRR during the week, with overcrowded trains and fans getting left on the platform, it was the Open’s most-used mode of transportation.

On Wednesday, USGA CEO Mike Whan said that “about 38% of our fans are showing up by trains, and feel free to make that 58% in the future.” Celiberti said Sunday that “we were almost up to 60% of fans” who took the LIRR to the Open.

The fan turnout toward the end of Saturday’s third round was met with criticism online, as barely any people were following the end of leader Wyndham Clark’s round and grandstands were close to empty. But Clark finished up around 8:15 p.m. Saturday, and plenty of fans left to catch Westbound trains at either 8 p.m., 7:10 p.m., 6:40 p.m. or earlier.

On Sunday, the two latest Westbound trains are at 9:30 p.m. and 8:47 p.m.

U.S. Open senior director Eric Steimer told Newsday in January that this year’s attendance would be a 15-to-20% reduction compared to the 2018 Open at Shinnecock Hills. That was done on purpose to avoid overcrowding the gallery, while also keeping in mind the challenge of commuting to Shinnecock Hills. The Athletic reported Sunday that the USGA sold 25% fewer tickets than it did for last year’s Open at Pennsylvania’s Oakmont Country Club, and only 30,000 tickets were made available for the four competition days this week.

But overall, Celiberti viewed this Open as a success. The USGA will have recap meetings with the local authorities and come up with learning lessons for 2036, when Shinnecock Hills will host both the men’s and women’s U.S. Open in back-to-back weeks.

“It's going to be a process of making sure that everything's all squared away and working with the town officials to make sure that they are all comfortable with our plans going into the championship, “ he said. “So we want to make sure that everybody at the same time has that same feeling going into it.”

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.