Wyndham Clark has a six-stroke lead heading into the final round of the U.S. Open. As Saturday progressed and the word “boring” started to get tossed around from ornery onlookers, Shinnecock Hills and New York fans began taking the heat.
A few observations through three days at Shinnecock:
*The USGA’s core focus for this year’s Open, recited in every announcement and interview, was to “let Shinnecock be Shinnecock.” And they have succeeded — Shinnecock has been Shinnecock. It’s the Atlantic that hasn’t been the Atlantic. Winds have been up but not quite as fierce and sustained as expected, so the early precautions the USGA took with green speeds opened the door to a few low scores.
*You don’t have to go very far to find people complaining that Shinnecock isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be and that its challenge hinges on turf trickery and wind. Saturday was an odd day for those gripes to surface, considering:
• Two players out of 72 broke par. The leader by six strokes was not one of them.
• The total score by the field on Saturday was +261. That’s 261 strokes over par. The average score to par was +3.6.
*Shinnecock is associated with brutality. Well-placed shots and short putts careening into the Redan bunker in 2004. Phil Mickelson hitting a moving putt in protest in 2018. Greg Norman accosting a fan as his wheels came off and spun into the fescue late on Saturday in 1986. This week’s difficulty has lacked that nastiness. And with a runaway win in progress, a fair amount of fans have taken their ire out on the course.
*Clark made incredible par saves on #10 and #13, but one that’s gotten lost in the mix is his recovery out of the right bunker on #11. His aggressive sand shot was probably one short skip from screaming off the back slope, which would have turned bogey into a best-case scenario. Instead he saved another par.
*When the MTA put out its Long Island Rail Road schedule for the U.S. Open, my first thought was: “That doesn’t seem like enough trains.” Especially for those fans who plan to stay until the end of play. Now the late-round galleries have been sparse and, guess what … people are complaining!
It’s not clear why the USGA and MTA would push the train as the preferred way to get to the Open, then pad the schedule with late-afternoon and evening service that pulls people out of the event 75 percent of the way through the day. Everyone knows there are physical and logistical limitations to getting thousands of people out to the South Fork by rail. But if you can add afternoon and evening trains, why not add one or two night trains so those who want to stay can do so knowing they have a few reasonable options to get home? On Saturday, if you wanted to stay to see the leaders finish on 18, your choices were sprint to the 8:47 train or catch the last train out at 9:30.
New York fans are going to make decisions based on the train schedule. It’s part of commuting in New York and on Long Island. Nobody is going to leave themselves in a position to miss or get crammed into the last train back to the mainland. Instead they’re going to leave by 6:00 and watch the final holes on their phone, on their couch or at a bar somewhere west of Patchogue.
*As The Fried Egg’s Brendan Porath details in this Sunday morning piece, the USGA has prioritized scaling back at the U.S. Open — a less pervasive presence of corporate tents, fewer looming grandstands that obscure the natural surrounds, and more focus on the course and championship themselves. One thing that’s stood out during this tournament week is the dueling-grandstands aspect at many holes: one for the regulars, and one for reserved ticketholders. So with the square footage of viewing structures already lowered, half (or more) of it is cordoned off for people who likely have better accommodations available to them at corporate pavilions. Meanwhile, long lines form behind the general-admission grandstands.
Does it matter? Usually not. But when the U.S. Open storyline begins to revolve around empty grandstands and tepid applause at key moments late on Saturday, decisions about things like fan access and train schedules play much bigger parts.