{"id":7671,"date":"2026-05-28T07:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/7671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T07:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:14:21","slug":"inside-the-east-end-nerve-center-building-the-u-s-open-at-historic-shinnecock-golf-course-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/7671\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the East End nerve center building the U.S. Open at historic Shinnecock golf course"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Ryan Celiberti has helped coordinate the U.S. Open build from a temporary USGA office in Southampton ahead of the championship at Shinnecock Hills. (Photo illustration)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The sign taped to the front window of a Southampton Village home is easy to miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hamptons Eye and Vision Office is Permanently Closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below it, another sheet of paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is now the office for the United States Golf Association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upstairs in the two-story building on North Sea Road sits the nerve center for the upcoming U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, with John Ryan Celiberti working beneath a giant aerial map of the golf course marked up with logistics notes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Long Island native John Ryan Celiberti, assistant director for the USGA\u2019s championship team, sits beneath an aerial map of Shinnecock Hills covered with logistics notes as preparations continue for the 2026 U.S. Open. (Edward Glazarev photo)<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Lynbrook native has spent the past two years on the East End with a small USGA team helping build the operation behind one of golf\u2019s biggest championships.<\/p>\n

The 2026 U.S. Open runs June 15-21, with practice rounds beginning Monday and tournament rounds scheduled for June 18-21.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got thousands of volunteers, massive parking operations, mutual aid support from different agencies, and operational components that all need to be running simultaneously and seamlessly,\u201d Mr. Celiberti, assistant director for the USGA\u2019s championship team, said during a sit-down with The Suffolk Times last month. \u201cAnd none of it existed six months before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laptops sit open around his office. Sticky notes cover the walls. There are plenty of logistics to coordinate: bus and train schedules, parking lots and public safety plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team is usually two years in advance, working on one week,\u201d Mr. Celiberti said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Celiberti arrived in Hampton Bays in 2024 as part of a traveling operations group that moves from championship to championship \u2014 Los Angeles, Pinehurst, now Shinnecock \u2014 to begin laying the groundwork with a small team that included fellow New Yorkers Brein McGinn and Colleen Fink. After six months of commuting to Southampton, he found a place within walking distance of the former optometrist\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

His job: Get people in, get people out.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransportation, public safety, clubhouse relations,\u201d he said. \u201cTrains, buses, parking lots, all that type of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Celiberti and his team have worked out of a former optometrist\u2019s office on North Sea Road for more than a year, coordinating transportation, public safety and other logistics for championship week. (Edward Glazarev photo)<\/p>\n

The U.S. Open doesn\u2019t simply show up in June. Months before spectators arrive, it is built through permits, traffic plans and meetings with town officials, civic associations, transportation planners, law enforcement agencies and emergency responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to really make sure we have these relationships early,\u201d Mr. Celiberti said. \u201cThat\u2019s really the main reason why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southampton Town expects crowds to peak around 40,000 people a day during championship rounds. The town will receive about $850,000 from the USGA to cover police, traffic control and public safety costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything else in the town does not stop because the U.S. Open is in town,\u201d said Ryan Murphy, the town\u2019s code compliance and emergency management administrator. \u201cPeople need to be able to move about, go to work, conduct business with the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A sign in the window of the former Hamptons Eye and Vision office directs U.S. Open inquiries to the USGA. (Credit: Edward Glazarev)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of everyone on site, and in motion to the event, as well as around the event, requires tremendous coordination,\u201d Mr. Murphy said.<\/p>\n

The logistics stretch well beyond the course itself.<\/p>\n

The Long Island Rail Road is adding service on the Montauk Branch and building temporary infrastructure to move spectators. Riverhead Town will host a major parking operation at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, where fans will be screened and shuttled east. Shuttle routes, temporary traffic patterns and pedestrian crossings are being layered into one of the East End\u2019s most congested summer corridors.<\/p>\n

The USGA\u2019s own fan guide warns spectators to expect heavy congestion throughout championship week along Sunrise Highway, County Road 39 and Montauk Highway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Crews install the temporary pedestrian bridge over County Road 39 after lightning delayed the overnight project. (USGA courtesy photo)<\/p>\n

One of the most important pieces is the temporary pedestrian bridge over County Road 39.<\/p>\n

Mr. Celiberti had May 20 circled on his calendar for months. That was the night crews were scheduled to install the bridge, one of the biggest pieces of infrastructure tied to the U.S. Open transportation plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about these dates for so long,\u201d Mr. Celiberti said. \u201cNow it\u2019s actually coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it did, the weather made sure no one eased into it.<\/p>\n

Eric Steimer, who manages championship infrastructure and operational build for the USGA, spoke the morning after two overnight work windows to get the bridge in place. He was still catching up on sleep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The plan had been simple enough on paper: Close the road overnight, raise the bridge, reopen County Road 39 before the morning commute.<\/p>\n

Then came lightning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is the first storm that I\u2019ve seen with lightning,\u201d Mr. Steimer said of his time working in Southampton. \u201cAnd of all nights, it had to pick the night we\u2019re trying to build a big metal bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lightning flashes delayed the start of the work by 90 minutes to two hours. Crews finished raising the bridge frame around 4:50 a.m., just 10 minutes before the road had to reopen. They returned the following night to complete the job.<\/p>\n

The bridge is not decorative. It is central to moving spectators.<\/p>\n

Mr. Steimer said roughly 40% to 45% of attendees are expected to come from the Stony Brook Southampton side of County Road 39, where the LIRR drop-off, rideshare operations, some shuttle service and parking areas feed into the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bridge is critical for us just to get people across the road without ever having to shut down or slow down traffic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fans arriving by train will pass through security screening before crossing the temporary pedestrian bridge into the championship grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The USGA fan guide outlines neighborhood street closures and restricted-access areas around Shinnecock Hills during championship week. (USGA courtesy image)<\/p>\n

More than 300 USGA staff, along with dozens of vendors and contractors, are involved in building the championship operation, according to Mr. Celiberti.<\/p>\n

Mr. Steimer put the broader scale in even sharper terms: about 3,400 volunteers, as many as 2,500 to 3,000 vendor and contractor employees, and more than 250 tents and temporary structures across the site. The merchandise pavilion alone is more than 30,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

The USGA also expects the championship to generate more than $200 million in economic activity for the region. Mr. Steimer said last year\u2019s U.S. Open at Oakmont, outside Pittsburgh, generated more than $285 million in long-term impact.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fans driving from points west of Shinnecock Hills are being directed to the Blue Lot at Calverton Airfield, where complimentary shuttles will carry spectators to the course. (USGA courtesy image)<\/p>\n

Drive past Shinnecock now and the transformation is already visible.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fans traveling from points east of Shinnecock Hills will be directed to parking at the Hampton Classic Horse Show grounds in Bridgehampton. (USGA courtesy photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a little city,\u201d Mr. Celiberti said.<\/p>\n

Shinnecock makes all of it harder than the other Opens Mr. Celiberti has worked on since joining the USGA in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe geography of the Hamptons doesn\u2019t give you a lot of options,\u201d he said. \u201cWith two main roads and one railway, you\u2019re naturally dealing with two significant bottlenecks before you even start planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Steimer said the USGA has reduced ticket sales by about 15% to 20% compared with past Opens at Shinnecock to ease congestion and improve spectator flow. Tickets remain available, though championship rounds were getting close to selling out.<\/p>\n

The build has changed, too. Instead of spreading more single-level tents across the property, the USGA has built upward in some areas, using double-decker structures to reduce the footprint and preserve more open views of the course.<\/p>\n

The goal, he said, is to showcase Shinnecock rather than overwhelm it.<\/p>\n

The USGA\u2019s answer off-site is a massive park-and-ride system, including a dedicated shuttle lane from Calverton designed to bypass morning backups on Sunrise Highway and County Road 39.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the U.S. Open is going to affect traffic,\u201d Mr. Celiberti said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to solve every long-term issue out here, but we hope our park-and-ride system does a lot of the heavy lifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with those changes, the basic East End reality remains.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rideshare and passenger drop-off areas will be limited during championship week, with westbound spectators encouraged to use Calverton or the LIRR to avoid congestion. (USGA courtesy image)<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to Shinnecock Hills is not easy,\u201d Mr. Steimer said. \u201cUnfortunately, we do not have a solve for the morning rush-hour traffic out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the bridge now in place, the work turns toward the final stretch, when plans pinned to office walls begin showing up as shuttle lanes, security checkpoints and spectators moving across the grounds.<\/p>\n

For Mr. Celiberti, who grew up making summer trips to the East End with his family, the assignment has become personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always saw it as like, \u2018Oh, this is a really cool golf course,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI never thought I would be working doing this kind of championship here, so this is a real full-circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Ryan Celiberti has helped coordinate the U.S. Open build from a temporary USGA office in Southampton ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44,4026,3529,4027,4028,3530,1288],"class_list":["post-7671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-u-s-open-championship","tag-golf","tag-hamptons","tag-premium","tag-riverhead","tag-shinnecock-golf","tag-u-s-open-2026","tag-u-s-open-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671","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=7671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}