Shinnecock
The Best F**in' Course I Ever Played
Shinnecock
If someone asked me what golf course I’d most like to play in the world, my answer could possibly be Shinnecock Hills.
Places like Augusta and Cypress Point are of course up there too, but as an outsider looking in, there’s something about Shinnecock that has pulled me in for years.
Shinnecock Hills sits out in The Hamptons, which according to my sources, is a reasonably nice part of the world. The Hamptons, on Long Island, is where those fortunate enough to make a few quid in New York tend to buy their second homes to spend their summers. A quick Google search of properties for sale along the beach would cause your mind to wander.
A Summer in Newport
When I was 20, I got my first insight into this world of affluence on America’s east coast. I spent a summer caddying in Newport, Rhode Island — basically a different version of the Hamptons. It was my first real adventure. My mate Joe and I landed into this wealthy part of America with the prospect of a job at a nice country club, a suitcase each, and our golf clubs. We didn’t have anywhere to live but we did have our golf clubs.
As a young lad growing up playing golf in Ireland, the sport was far more accessible than in these wealthy parts of the US. I found the whole experience mind altering.
The two golf clubs in my local town of Wicklow were about 100 quid a year each for my parents to pay for my annual membership. For context, the current entrance fees at Shinnecock will apparently run you between $200k-$250k. Of course, you wouldn’t even have the privilege of paying those fees unless you know somebody.
The contrast was an eye opener for Joe and myself. We would nearly get paid as much for carrying a bag for one round as it cost to cover our annual membership back home.
Pretty early on that summer, as we walked side by side with the players we caddied for — or more often in my case, frantically running behind them trying to keep up and shut up — I would eavesdrop on conversations between members.
They would talk about the great courses they had played around the North East — Newport Country Club, where we were spending the summer, then Merion and Pine Valley. But I remember one day hearing about a place called Shinnecock Hills.
The first ever US Open was held at Newport Country Club in 1895. The second was held at Shinnecock Hills in 1896.
The exact words used by the member who talked about Shinnecock were “it’s the best fuckin course I ever played,” in his thick Boston accent. He spoke about it like it was a mystical place — somewhere behind a secret door. I have to play there some day, I thought to myself as I raked a greenside bunker.
I went home that evening and watched YouTube videos of Retief Goosen winning his US Open there in 2004. I remember hearing the commentators say “they’ve lost the golf course.”
What does that even mean?
Maybe that US Open stands out to me because Goosen had an Irish caddie on the bag — Colin Byrne. As far as I know, Byrne was the first Irishman involved in a major win on US soil. Maybe it was Byrne and Goosen who got the ball rolling for Irish major success in the years that followed, not Padraig Harrington.
As a man in the throes of caddying myself that summer, Byrne caddying for Goosen resonated — though caddying for an 18 handicap around a fancy country club is slightly lower stakes than what Colin Byrne faced steering his man to victory around a treacherous US Open course.
In the clips I watched, I noticed Shinnecock, this US course, looks more like an Irish links. The wind, the sandy soil, the high fescue. That’s pretty cool, I thought. This place just looks like an Irish golf course that’s been baked by the sun.
For clarity, Shinnecock isn’t a links course — there are subtle differences that make it different. But still, I wondered what Colin Byrne had been feeling that day, jockeying his man around the back nine while everyone else seemed to be losing their minds.
Shinnecock, A Special Place
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve listened to lots of podcasts about Shinnecock and read everything I can get my hands on about the place. This podcast from The Golfer’s Journal with Jimmy Dunne was my favourite.
The club has a pretty interesting history. The name “Shinnecock” comes from the Shinnecock Indian Nation, whose people inhabited the area long before the golf course was built. Historical accounts describe how members of the tribe helped construct the original holes in 1891, using oxen and ploughs to shape the land.
In the first few years of members playing the course, golfers occasionally unearthed human bones while playing from bunkers — an unsettling reminder that parts of the property had once served as Native American burial grounds.
As you can imagine, relations between the tribe and the golf club haven’t always been smooth. There was a lawsuit in 2005 — the year after Goosen’s US Open win — where the tribe felt land had been taken unjustly and sought compensation. The court’s verdict favoured the golf club.
Despite the obvious questions that come to mind when hearing about wealthy men taking sacred land and turning it into a fancy golf club, Shinnecock actually seems to have been a progressive club in a lot of ways.
Ahead of the first US Open held there in 1896, players in the field protested that two Black and Native American men were entered in the tournament — John Shippen and Oscar Bunn. Shippen, a teenager who lived on the nearby Shinnecock reservation, actually had his entrance fee paid by several members who’d seen his skill.
USGA president Theodore Havemeyer shut down the protest, saying the tournament would go ahead even if Shippen and Bunn were the only two players in the field. Shippen finished tied for fifth.
The logo for Shinnecock is a Native American wearing a ceremonial feathered headdress — an image that has long symbolised the club’s historical connection to the tribe. My understanding is there’s a respect between the people involved at the club and the land it sits on. I don’t want to speak out of place here, as I’m sure there are facts I’m ignorant of, so I’ll leave it at that.
Originally, two separate nine-hole courses were built — one for men, one for women. That may not seem all that progressive today, but at the time it was. The women’s nine-hole course hosted one of the first US Women’s Amateur Championships in 1900.
2018 — Brooks and Ricky
In 2018, 14 years after Goosen and Byrne’s win, the US Open returned to Shinnecock.
You probably remember Phil Mickelson’s incident that year — he hit a putt too hard, it started rolling off the green, so he hit it again while it was still moving. Two shot penalty. Everyone made a big deal of it. I didn’t think it was that big a deal.
But more evidence the USGA had “lost the golf course” — a reference to how they let the greens get too baked and fast, pushing an already difficult but fair course toward something unfair.
I watched that Sunday evening from my couch in Wicklow as Brooks Koepka, the most dominant player in the world at the time, held off Tommy Fleetwood to go back-to-back at US Opens.
But who’s walking beside him down the fairways? Ricky Elliott — another man from the island of Ireland. Guiding his man around this Irish-looking golf course, just like Byrne had, 14 years before.
A couple of Irishmen in New York, winning caddies at US Opens at Shinnecock.
Is there something in that, I wonder?
The last two US Opens won around this Irish-style golf course were both won by men with Irish caddies on the bag.
Maybe that’s also why I feel such a strong pull to see Shinnecock in the flesh — maybe it somehow suits my Irish eyes. Maybe the same was true for Colin Byrne and Ricky Elliott.
The first time I heard about the course, my ears pricked up. The first time I saw pictures of it, my eyes lit up. Shinnecock strikes me as a special place.
I wanna play there.
Maybe Some Day
I’m writing this piece in the week leading up to the 2026 US Open at this special golf course. Right now I have no idea how the US Open will play out, and maybe it’ll be pure coincidence that two Irish caddies have steered their men to victory around this Irish-looking golf course that sits on the land of those who’ve made it in America.
Those who’ve made it in New York.
What I love about golf is that us weekend warriors can, under certain circumstances, sometimes play these great courses. Shinnecock is officially ranked 4th in the world according to Top 100 Golf Courses.
Of that list, Shinnecock is ranked the best golf course in the world to host a major championship. Cypress Point, Pine Valley and Royal County Down are the only courses ranked higher overall, and although RCD has hosted Irish Opens in recent years, Shinnecock is the only current major championship course in that top five.
Shinnecock may not be quite the same delight for the eyes that Augusta is, where everything is built around beauty — but as you watch the US Open this year, be aware: this is a special place.
I haven’t been fortunate enough to walk the fairways of Shinnecock yet, and maybe I never will. But if I ever do, I suspect a part of me will still be that young lad in Newport, raking a bunker, listening to a man in a Boston accent tell me about the best course he ever played.
Maybe some day.
The Read: Bagman: Inside the Exclusive World of Pro Golf, by Colin Byrne
The Caddie’s Line: Irish caddies who’ve been on the bag for major wins — records before 1950 are hard to find, so let me know in the comments if there’s anyone I’ve missed.
Ricky Elliott — Brooks Koepka (5 majors)
JP Fitzgerald — Rory McIlroy (4 majors)
Ronan Flood — Padraig Harrington (3 majors)
Harry Diamond — Rory McIlroy (2 majors)
Paddy Byrne — Paul Lawrie (1 major)
Colin Byrne — Retief Goosen (1 major)
Bo Martin — Shane Lowry (1 major)
John Mulrooney — Darren Clarke (1 major)
Excellent Conor, really enjoyed that