Shinnecock Hills is expected to give the players all sorts of problems during the U.S. Open this week.
The combined score of the last four winners of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills is four-under par, and that tells us all we need to know about the difficulty of the golf course.
Michael Kim is in the field this week, and he will be hopeful of doing something he has never done before in his career by recording a top-10 finish in a major championship.
However, Michael Kim may well have his work cut out.
The 32-year-old played a practice round at Shinnecock Hills on Monday ahead of the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday.
And Kim noticed a few interesting quirks about the golf course.
Michael Kim raises concern about Shinnecock ahead of the U.S. Open
Kim took to his official X account to provide a detailed rundown of how the golf course is shaping up ahead of the start of the tournament on Thursday.
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“Course thoughts: Course conditions are interesting,“ Kim admitted.
“Fairways are generous but if you miss them, there’s about three yards of rough and then the long hay stuff. You can get lucky with a lie and advance it towards the green, but the greens are so tricky here, it’s probably better to lay up to a number.
“Talking about the greens… the greens are spongy so far. Decently receptive and not crazy fast. I think they want to make sure to not lose the greens especially with how much wind is forecasted on Thursday.
“They’re also quite bumpy. Poa greens plus some of the aeration holes are completely fixed. You can still see the outline of the punched holes. Putting is going to be super tricky.
“The bunkers have a lot of rocks and shells in them. Can lead to weird rocky lies but also spray the green with a bunch of rocks too. We’re allowed to move rocks but thought that was an interesting set up.“
Michael Kim comments on the wind at Shinnecock Hills
Kim has delivered a detailed explanation of just how tricky the wind can be at Shinnecock.
“There’s nothing stopping the wind here,” Kim said.
“It’s forecast as only 15-20 mph, but you feel ALL of it. There’s really no trees or anything stopping it.
“With how small some of these greens play, it’s very tough to hit your numbers and hit greens. Overall these greens are big but they play very very small.
“There’s run-offs on almost every side. Especially 10 and 11. Wow those greens play TINY.
“This also makes putting very tricky. You definitely have to play the wind sometimes, but catch the wrong gust and you’ll miss it completely.“
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