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Golf Course Trades Runs my Shinnecock Restoration Review in Prep for the 2018 U.S. Open

ROLL ME OVER! SWATHS OF SHINNECOCK FAIRWAYS AWAIT TRANSPORT TO NEW JERSEY, WHILE IMPORTED ROLLS OF ROUGH ARE LAID OUT TO NARROW THE FAIRWAYS FOR THE 118TH U.S. OPEN.

As always, Golf Course Trades did a phenomenal job with my preview for the U.S. Open. Super Jon Jennings leads an all-star cast of supers, meteorologists, and USGA brass in getting Shinnecock Hills ready for the pros and the National Championship.

Jennings is a fascinating guy. as the articles states, “Golf is lucky to have gotten Jennings at all, actually. He was…indeed, still is…a phenomenal, multi-sport athlete. He played football and lacrosse in high school, rugby in college, (you know how crazy rugby players are!), and still to this day can run a half marathon in 90 minutes or ski the double black diamond runs at Whiteface and Waterville Valley faster than kids less than half his age.”

It’s a fascinating bit of prestidigitation: Coore and Crenshaw widened the fairways considerably in their recent restoration, but they needed to be tightened for the Open. So instead of just growing the rough, the USGA trucked it in.

We have several insiders on the ground at Shinnecock – including the curmudgeonly but brilliant “Charles MacRaynor,” a Shinneock member for six decades and golf’s proper rejoinder to Deep Throat – and together we will feed you up to the minute information here, at GCT and at Golf News Net, right up until we take our seat in the media center in Southampton on Monday June 11. From now until then, we are party central for the 118th U.S. Open.

[ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF JON JENNINGS AND SHINNECOCK HILLS G.C.]
THE HAND OF GOD? NO JON JENNINGS AND TEAM WORKING THROUGH THE NIGHT TO MAKE THIS THE BEST OPEN EVER HELD AT SHINNECOCK