A golf course near a coastline almost always introduces elements of unpredictability. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, nestled between two saltwater bays and just a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean, is Exhibit A. In addition to the ever-present and shifting winds, a thick layer of fog rolled in shortly after the 6:35 a.m. EDT start of Thursday\u2019s first round, resulting in a two-hour suspension of play.<\/p>\n
Because of the delay, 50 players had to return to Shinnecock Hills early Friday morning to complete their first rounds. But now, the fog has lifted and the business of being one of the low 60 and ties to make the 36-hole cut is foremost on everyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
What will it take to not just make the weekend, but contend? Resolve and patience, for sure, as the sustained winds and stronger gusts impact every shot \u2013 including putts \u2013 on this architectural masterpiece. It will also take imagination; while Shinnecock\u2019s fairways are wider than they have ever been for a U.S. Open, the challenge intensifies as a player gets closer to the brilliantly designed green complexes.<\/p>\n
Here are three things to know for Round 2:<\/p>\n
The Winds of Change<\/p>\n
Coming into the first round, the prevailing wisdom was that players with tee times in the morning wave on Thursday would have the edge, based on the wind forecast. The fog delay changed that calculus. While the wind didn\u2019t blow quite as hard as expected, it was at its strongest from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. The 78 players in the morning wave\u00a0 felt the brunt of that force \u2013 only six players broke 70, led by Sam Stevens with 68. Slightly calmer conditions settled in by roughly 4 p.m. Thursday and the afternoon wave players, including 18-hole leader Wyndham Clark (6-under 64), took full advantage. The scoring average for the afternoon starters was 72.67, more than one stroke lower than the 73.87 recorded for the morning starters.<\/p>\n
However, as USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer emphasized on Golf Channel, Shinnecock Hills\u2019 sandy soil means that the course dries as quickly as any in the game. Lower humidity, which will compound that characteristic, is forecasted for the remainder of the championship. While the late Thursday\/early Friday starters might have had the edge thus far, it is very possible that the pendulum will swing back. Such are the vagaries of U.S. Open golf, particularly on a course like this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A golf course near a coastline almost always introduces elements of unpredictability. Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, nestled between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1399,599,885],"class_list":["post-24502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-spotlight","tag-u-s-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}