U.S. Open at Shinnecock: Long Island golf course welcomes world's best

It’s already become an electric sports summer here in New York. The Knicks alone have provided enough voltage to run just about every AC unit in the city. There is also the arrival of the World Cup that will pack not just our nearest megastadium but every bar or restaurant with an ethnic tinge to it for the next few weeks. The Belmont Stakes was held upstate at Saratoga once again last week but anyone who drives down the Cross Island or takes a train can see that construction on the new Belmont Park racetrack is coming along just in time to get back to hosting the third rung of any future Triple Crown quests. And of course there are the Yankees and Mets, the backbeats of summer in this region.

Long Island is close enough to all of those events to catch some stray charges and delight in the various levels of euphoria. Heck, we may even have produced a Stanley Cup-winning goalie without even realizing it and find ourselves pulling — at least temporarily — for a hockey team from Carolina rather than the Islanders or Rangers.

This week, though, we get to have our own showcase.

Golf’s U.S. Open Championship is coming back to Shinnecock Hills in Southampton.

Some of the biggest names in the sport will be absent from the action. For various reasons Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and Tony Finau will be among those notable for not playing. We won’t even get a chance to see Charlie Woods, Tiger’s son, in any of the action. Even though he was the caddie for his pal Miles Russell when the 17-year-old qualified for his spot in the Open earlier this month the Tiger Cub won’t have those duties this week.

What this Open will lack in perceived star power, however, it will more than make up for in setting.

“The U.S. Open at Shinnecock may not be the only expression of golf in America, but I think it's probably the ultimate expression of golf in this country,” said Rich Lerner of the Golf Channel. “Its place in history, origins of the game in the United States, it’s as close to Scotland as you can get. I would say it's the quality of the land, obviously, where it sits, its proximity to wealth and power, and its commitment to upholding the traditions of the game.”

That is definitely not something that could be said the last time a big golf tournament took place on this glacial remnant of ours. Last fall the Ryder Cup made its way to Bethpage’s infamous Black Course where rowdiness and rancor were the descriptors and the crowd flexed its beer-guzzling muscles. Things were so over the top that one of the emcees of the event had to step down from her role for joining in on an expletive-laden chant directed at Rory McIlroy.

Talk about being a public coarse!

Not to say it wasn’t fun — although the Euros getting the biggest laugh with their trouncing of the Stars and Stripers certainly made it less so — but those (probably) won’t be the vibes at Shinnecock. Located about 60 miles east of Bethpage on a map and about a galaxy away in terms of attitude and atmosphere — not to mention actual driving time — this Open figures to be more genteel than garish.

Think far more Burberry than 'burbs.

While the in-the-gates cost of admission for the practice rounds early this week on the secondary market are nearly as low as what it would take to putt through the windmill and into the clown’s nose at a local minigolf course, this is still the kind of event where the merchandise tent offers belts for $170.

That’s belts to keep up your literal fancy pants from that Jobs Lane boutique, not the kind you’d throw down at the bar at B.K. Sweeney’s just outside the tee boxes at Bethpage.

None of this suggests that the Open will lack drama or flair or character. McIlroy will be there, back on Long Island for the first time publicly since his Ryder Cup victory. Scotty Scheffler will be trying to claim his career Grand Slam. Former champions Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm will be playing. J.J. Spaun will try to defend the Open title he won at Oakmont last year.

All of them will be competing against each other.

They’ll be competing against Shinnecock.

They’ll be competing on Long Island.

“If you look at all the winners around there, they've got two things in common: They've got great short games but also they've got a gnarly attitude,” Paul McGinley of the Golf Channel said of those who have won on this course. “That's the point they'll finish on as U.S. Open champions, particularly around a test as difficult as Shinnecock.”

Manhattan will have the Knicks. MetLife will be the center of the soccer universe.

This one is ours.

The U.S. Open is traditionally one of the most grueling tournaments of the year. Shinnecock is one of the most challenging courses in the country. The combination of the two will humble anyone who thinks they can simply wander in and conquer it, test those who want to be recognized among the best, and eventually honor the person who figures out how to tame it all as a champion.

That’s about as Long Island as it gets.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.