It was hard to get away from the Irish flavour during the final round of the US PGA Championship at Aronimink. Pádraig Harrington’s spectacular finish proved that the veteran can still mix it with the young guns, while Nick Taylor is coached by Omagh’s Gareth Raflewski and Derry’s Chris Selfridge caddies for Matti Schmid… And, of course, the usual Rory McIlroy storyline was front and centre.
The U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills has Irish fingerprints all over it as well, and they dig deep into the fabric of the golf club. The Irish influence in the golf industry is enormous, with people from the island holding some of the most coveted jobs, and one man will be at the heart of it all as the best players in the world flock to his turf.
Sean Quinlivan is just another example of someone who is pulling up trees in the United States.
Now in his fifth year as the Head Professional at Shinnecock Hills, the Kerry man knows this week could be a career highlight with the U.S. Open Championship coming to the club for the fifth time and first since he joined in 2022.
Shinnecock is one of the most prestigious venues on the USGA rota, and the U.S. Open’s return has made this championship one of the most eagerly anticipated with plenty expecting a gruelling test over four rounds.
Quinlivan’s predecessor Jack Druga played a practice round with Tiger Woods when he was preparing for the 2018 U.S. Open Championship, and the Irishman will relish any opportunity he gets to help some of the cream of the crop around the course during practice.
He will be involved throughout the tournament week with his remit on making sure the practice facilities are in good shape.
“This is one of the iconic championship courses in US golf,” Quinlivan said. “The club is excited to host it and the USGA are excited to come back here. It’s a lot of fun to play a small part.
“The professional staff role is practice range. We will manage the practice range for the players and practice round tee times during the week.”
For a small island on the periphery of Europe, Ireland’s influence on golf is truly a global phenomenon and we have done pretty well in the Major stakes as well. Twelve major championship victories have landed on these shores since Harrington broke the barriers down at Carnoustie in 2007. Two U.S. Opens are included in that glorious haul in back-to-back years from Graeme McDowell in 2010 and McIlroy in 2011.
McDowell has also boosted the Irish presence this month after he came through 36-holes of Final Qualifying to book his spot in his first U.S. Open since 2020 and first major championship since then too.
So what of McIlroy’s chances heading to Shinnecock Hills? He missed the cut the last time it was hosted there in 2018 but a Masters title and a T7 finish at the PGA Championship all without his ‘A’ game makes him inevitably dangerous.
Driving has been an issue for McIlroy in the opening two major championships of the season. He defied a second-to-last ranking in driving accuracy at Augusta National to retain the green jacket but four of fourteen fairways and 76/82 in driving accuracy on the final day in Aronimink cost him a third Wanamaker Trophy.
After lamenting a non-existent driving strategy at Aronimink last month only to have that statement come back to bite him, these are statistics he must improve for what is expected to be a classic U.S. Open test.
The 2011 U.S. Open champion has also played a more relaxed schedule this season – partly because of a back injury in the spring – but it could explain why he hasn’t been completely sharp from tee-to-green so far this year.
“I have had to hit more balls after rounds recently than I have done over the last few years,” McIlroy said. “I don’t know if that’s because I haven’t played as much golf as I am used to, but it seems like every time I hit balls after I play, I can bring that feeling into the next day and play a bit better. I think there’s a lesson in there that maybe a few balls in between rounds is never a bad thing.”
The six-time major winner has described Shinnecock as one of his favourite U.S. Open venues and he expects a critical test of his short game skills.
“I’ll go there a little bit early again, try to get some prep in and re-familiarise myself with that golf course a bit.
“Short game is going to have to be very sharp that week. Greens very similar to the greens here [at Aronimink], the run-offs and slopes, except there’s not the thick rough around the greens. It’s more tighter lies and the ball gets away from the greens a little bit, which is sort of more like I like it.”
Harrington is itching to tee it up at the U.S. Open after an impressive PGA Championship performance rekindled his Major mojo. The three-time major winner put on a spectacular finish at Aronimink with an eagle, par, birdie finish that included holing a bunker shot and a deliberately bladed wedge and since then he has been licking his lips over a potential run at Shinnecock Hills.
The 54-year-old has never given up hope of having one more tilt at a fourth major title and setups like Aronimink and Shinnecock give him hope that he can hang with the young guns on the toughest tests. In fact, with five top-10s in the US Open it can be argued that this is his best major despite not getting over the winning line with chances in 2006 and 2012 going begging.
He came into the season eyeing up Royal Birkdale, the site of his second Open title, as his best chance to surprise a few but he believes he can roll with the punches at the year’s third major.
“This was probably the first time I’ve had a positive Strokes Gained: Putting (for years),” he said ahead of his second U.S. Open appearance since 2013 having finished T31 at Shinnecock in 2004. “My putting was so much better at the PGA than it has been for 15, 20 years.
“I’m fully focused on the U.S. Open, that’s what’s up next. If we have a tough Shinnecock or a tough Open Championship at Birkdale, I can hang with people in that.”
A top-20 finish was Harrington’s best major result since a T4 placing at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island but he has rediscovered his Major spark and is brimming with confidence heading to Shinnecock.
With a driver that still regularly breaches the 300-yard mark and now with a rekindled flame on the greens, he knows he can still mix it with the best on his day.
“Of course, making the cut is not a bad thing at my age, and, of course, if I could go out there and play well, and look like I’m competitive with these young guys, that’s not a bad thing either,” he said.
“I try and expect more, but I certainly appreciate the fact that I still go out there and play with these young guys and good young players, and I can hold my own.
“I don’t feel like I’m out there getting in the way.”
Shane Lowry also missed the cut the last time the U.S. Open was hosted at Shinnecock Hills. The course wasn’t kind to him then and the first two majors of the year haven’t been kind to him so far and this championship will form part of a hectic four in a row stretch where he hopes to have rekindled some of his enjoyment of the game following plenty of highs but some hurtful lows in the spring.
The Offaly man returned to action at the Memorial Tournament and is currently in TPC Toronto for the RBC Canadian Open before heading to Long Island and Shinnecock Hills and taking in the Travelers Championship before the family comes home to Ireland in preparation for the Open Championship at Birkdale.
“It’s the way the tour is now,” Lowry said. “So, I’m looking forward to getting home now and spending some time with Wendy and the kids, just for a couple of weeks. And not really doing much other than that, to be honest.
“It’s Memorial, Canada, U.S. Open and Travelers, four in a row. So, it’s still a busy summer, but I’ll keep battling away; that’s all you can do. By the time I get to the end of the U.S. Open, I just want to go home. So, it would be nice to have them on the road with me for a few weeks. And the kids are at a nice age now.”
It has been a gut punching season for Lowry despite playing some excellent golf at times, but he hopes he can park the first part of the year and reset himself for a summer run. A superb iron player, one of the best in the world in fact, Shinnecock Hills might suit his eye.
“I played the last U.S. Open there and didn’t do great,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s going to be pretty generous off the tee and very difficult into the greens and around the greens.
“It’s going to need some good iron play.”
Shinnecock Hills hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for some of our players, but we have had a home winner there before in the shape of veteran caddie Colin Byrne who was on the bag for Retief Goosen in the infamous 2004 edition – the highlight of both of their careers.
The U.S. Open’s identity has always been to provide the toughest test in golf, meaning from the opening tee shot on Thursday, tensions are high. And since the caddie is often the first available punching bag for a player who’s underperforming, the added strain on weeks such as that are palpable.
And few of the U.S. Opens – certainly few this century – have provided a sterner test than Shinnecock did in ‘04 where dry, windy weather and greens not being watered early in the week stretched the course to its limits and arguably beyond.
“It was hot,” Byrne recalls, “and it was more a policy of the USGA – and this seemed to mark a turning point until they came back [to Shinnecock] a few years ago and did virtually the same thing, because in between that they’d seemed to learn their lesson and not make a mockery of the great event and the course hosting. Pushing the boundaries that much worked against them.
“I remember Shinnecock being unprecedented where they were watering the greens in between play and I have vivid memories of the trepidation I had waiting – and you always have late tee times when you’re last out, I think it might have been three o’clock when we started – and I remember sitting outside the locker room – still outside the locker room in those days – waiting to meet Retief and I see these scores coming in. 84, 86…. And I’m thinking ‘what the hell is going on?’”
Goosen held off Phil Mickelson who was the darling of the States whenever it was U.S. Open week as he chased that elusive national title.
“Anyone who’s played on the east coast of the States knows that if you’re not American, playing for a U.S. Open, they’re pretty hostile,” Byrne reminisces, “and this is the one he should’ve won according to the adoring fans there.
“It got to a point on the back nine where you were walking from green to tee and they were getting in his face and shouting ‘all yours to lose Goosen’ and ‘c’mon Goosen, choke and make it interesting’, stuff like that. And anybody who knows Retief knows that that’s the worst thing you could do because he’s tough and that’s only going to make him tougher
“There was a Buddha-like calm to Retief and that made it easier to be there with him because normally it works the other way. The player starts feeling the pressure and the heat comes on you to try to calm him down. And in the end, the toughest man won, and the crowd actually helped him by effectively abusing him.”
Shinnecock Hills will provide a quintessential U.S. Open examination of the players. Notoriously known for being the benchmark for how difficult the USGA set up a course for the world’s hardest major, scoring history suggests that if you can linger around level-par you will have a chance to win.
Leave a comment