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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAn early morning sunrise over Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, as grounds crew members work to prepare the course for U.S. Open play. (Courtesy photo)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAn early morning sunrise over Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, as grounds crew members work to prepare the course for U.S. Open play. (Courtesy photo)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Last week, Southampton\u2019s Shinnecock Hills hosted the United States Golf Association\u2019s (USGA) U.S. Open Championship, one of the four major tournaments in professional golf.<\/p>\n
More than 100,000 spectators attended the event throughout the week, while millions more watched from home. The tournament ultimately came down to the final stretch on Sunday, where Wyndham Clark held off Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim, and others to capture his second U.S. Open title.<\/p>\n
But while the world\u2019s best golfers battled one another for the championship, they also battled the course. The U.S. Open is notorious for its difficult course conditions, particularly at Shinnecock Hills, where maintaining the course is a major undertaking. To prepare the course for championship play, approximately 120 groundskeepers and superintendents from around the world volunteered their time during tournament week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among them were two of Shelter Island\u2019s own, who spent the week working long hours behind the scenes for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at one of golf\u2019s biggest events. Arielle Gardiner, the newly appointed superintendent at Shelter Island Country Club (Goat Hill), and Ben Howell, the greens superintendent at Gardiner\u2019s Bay Country Club, worked on the Shinnecock Hills grounds crew last week. The Reporter met up with both superintendents on Monday, June 22, to discuss their time at the tournament.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SIR2026_0625_U.S.OPEN_-1024x683.png\")
Shelter Island\u2019s Ben Howell, left, and Arielle Gardiner, right, worked on the grounds crew during last week\u2019s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. (Courtesy photo)<\/p>\n
The Overnight Shift With Arielle Gardiner<\/p>\n
It was an exhausting week. Ms. Gardiner worked evening and pre-dawn shifts at Shinnecock while still reporting back to Goat Hill each day. Being situated on an island without a 24\/7 ferry made for a complicated commute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest day was filling divots until 10 p.m., getting on South Ferry by 10:45, getting home around 11, walking my dog until 11:30, then getting on the 11:45 ferry back off the Island,\u201d Gardiner explained. She added, \u201cI\u2019d spend the rest of the time sort of napping in my car. Then at 2 a.m. you slap your face a little, drink some water, brush your teeth, and get ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
They would meet by 2:30 in the morning, hit the course by 3, and work until 7 a.m. before the first pairings went off. Then, it was right back to Shelter Island. \u201cI\u2019d go home, get the dog, and then come to Goat Hill. I\u2019d mow greens, collars, and keep things moving,\u201d she said, before returning to Southampton later that evening.<\/p>\n
Being new to the turf industry, Ms. Gardiner had not applied to volunteer months in advance like many of her fellow volunteers. Instead, she reached out to the USGA just a short time before the tournament. \u201cI emailed the USGA directly and said, \u2018Hey, my name is Arielle. I\u2019m the new superintendent at Goat Hill. I know we\u2019re just a small, humble course, but it would mean the world to me, not only as a new person in turf, but as a female in turf, to have this opportunity,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Peter Barnaby, an assistant superintendent at Shinnecock, responded, noting that he grew up golfing at Goat Hill and would love to have her.<\/p>\n
Part of what stood out was the scale of the operation. \u201cTo volunteer at the U.S. Open is a really wonderful experience because you\u2019re not just meeting people locally,\u201d Ms. Gardiner said. \u201cPeople fly in from all across the country, even internationally,\u201d she said, with volunteers from Japan, Scotland, Ireland and beyond.<\/p>\n
The work was also highly organized. Ms. Gardiner said volunteers were assigned to specific teams, with groups handling greens, fairways, approaches, bunkers, divots, watering and other jobs across the property. \u201cYou were assigned a job basically for the week,\u201d she said. \u201cThey had it really well organized.\u201d Volunteers used an app to see their assignments, uniforms and teams for each day, while Shinnecock\u2019s assistant superintendents and interns helped oversee the different crews.<\/p>\n
Ben Howell\u2019s Fourth Championship<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t Mr. Howell\u2019s first championship. He\u2019d tended the grounds at Sebonack for the 2013 U.S. Women\u2019s Open, at National Golf Links of America for the 2013 Walker Cup, and at Shinnecock for the 2018 U.S. Open. In 2018, Mr. Howell spent his time with the fairway crew collecting grass clippings, whereas this year, \u201cI was mowing fairways, and I was on the back-nine fairway crew. So I guess this was a little upgrade,\u201d he said. Adding, \u201cIt was a lot of fun. Getting to mow fairways is pretty cool because you get to see the whole property from the mower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similar to Ms. Gardiner, Mr. Howell spent the week working at Shinnecock and at his regular job. \u201cI was getting back to Gardiner\u2019s around 9:30 in the morning. I\u2019ve got an assistant over there who was able to take over, and everything went smoothly.\u201d He added, \u201cI lived in Southampton for 12 years, so I still have a lot of friends over there. I ended up crashing at one of their houses because I can\u2019t get to the Open at 3 a.m. from Shelter Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted the shift since the last Open at Shinnecock. \u201cI think the USGA did a good job maintaining the expectations they wanted without letting the place get out of control,\u201d he explained. Back in 2018, the course was so challenging that not a single player finished under par. This year, \u201cOnly three golfers finished under par,\u201d he said. \u201cI think some people were worried they were going to make it too easy, but with only three, you have to give them credit.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the specifics, Mr. Howell noted the fairways and bunkers. \u201cThey left the fairways wider, which they didn\u2019t do in 2018. That\u2019s what they should have done because that\u2019s the original design, \u2026 kind of rustic, natural beach sand, so you can find yourself with some bad lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Memorable Sunday<\/p>\n
After an exhausting week, Ms. Gardiner and r. Howell met Sunday afternoon to watch an action-packed competition. Many players made moves late in the day, but Wyndham Clark held his own, as he three-putted 17, then had to par 18 to win and hold off Sam Burns by just one shot. While millions watched on TV and thousands lined the ropes surrounding the 18th green, the two Islanders joined their fellow volunteers on the green afterward for a group photo with the champion.<\/p>\n
Mr. Howell said, \u201cBeing with 120 other superintendents, assistants, and interns and being part of that process is something you never forget.\u201d He added,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms. Gardiner said, \u201cStanding there watching the final putts drop, just feet away from the green, was unbelievable,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a week of little sleep while balancing two turf jobs, was it worth it? \u201cIt made it all worth it,\u201d Ms. Gardiner said. \u201cDefinitely,\u201d Howell added. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An early morning sunrise over Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, as grounds crew members work to prepare the course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10864,10865,10866,5295,10867,1045,10868,1295,10869,5296,656],"class_list":["post-27229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-open-championship","tag-gardiners-bay-country-club","tag-national-golf-links-of-america","tag-sebonack","tag-shelter-island","tag-shelter-island-country-club","tag-shinnecock-hills","tag-south-ferry","tag-the-open-championship","tag-the-u-s-open","tag-united-states-golf-association","tag-walker-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27229","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=27229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}