Shinnecock to punish wayward hitters

TIGER WOODS, Phil Mickelson and all the other long but wayward hitting golfers have been warned.

Accuracy from the tee as distinct from the ability to power the ball for miles will be the key when it comes to winning next week's US Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills.

Although the European Tour is in Scotland this week for the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles and the Americans are in Westchester, New York, for the Buick Classic, these events really only whet the appetite for what will be happening from tomorrow week at this unusual but exciting piece of golfing real estate near the stylish summer resort of Southampton on the eastern end of Long Island.

Not alone is Shinnecock steeped in tradition it was created in 1891, was one of the five founding clubs of the USGA and staged the second US Open in 1896 but it is also the closest the United States can come to producing a links course of the calibre we enjoy in Britain and Ireland.

The 1891 version of Shinnecock Hills was designed by the Scot, Willie Dunn, who described many years later how he "set to work with the help of 150 Indians from the neighbouring Shinnecock Reservation. Except for several horse-drawn roadscrapers, all the work was done by hand. The fairways were cleaned off and the natural grass left in. The place was dotted with Indian burial mounds and we left some of those intact as bunkers in front of the greens. It was here that the Indians buried their empty whiskey bottles, but we did not find this out until later when playing the course. One never knew when an explosion shot in a trap would bring out a couple of whiskey flasks or perhaps a bone or two."

Delightful. Anyway, the course gradually developed although it wasn't until 1931 that a well-known architect of the time, Dick Wilson, re-designed the layout much as it is today.

The unfortunate Indians, however, were not forgotten and a chief in full feathered regalia remains the club's emblem and will be all over the place next week. The experts assure us that Shinnecock isn't a links in the true meaning of the word, explaining that "the grass of the fairways and greens is more of an inland texture", but its ambience does evoke feelings of places like Lahinch, Ballybunion and Birkdale in other words, a lovely place to play and watch golf.

Unusually after its bright beginning, Shinnecock didn't host the US Open again until 1986 when Raymond Floyd defeated Chip Beck and Lanny Wadkins by two strokes. That's also the margin Corey Pavin enjoyed over Greg Norman in the most recent visit to Shinnecock in 1995.

Interestingly, given the trend to longer and longer courses for major tournaments (Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, the venue for this year's US PGA will play to a massive 7,590 yards), this has been completely avoided at Shinnecock which measures a modest 6,996 with a par of 70.

"If you look at this yardage and think this is a piece of cake, you're in for a big surprise," said Tom Meeks, the USGA's senior director of rules and competitions. "Hitting the ball further at Shinnecock is no big deal. It's getting it on the green and keeping it on the green that matters."

Corey Pavin agrees: "This course stands on its own, it has great merit all by itself."

That point was graphically made in 1986 when Floyd was the only player to break par and he only did so by a single shot. Bob Tway's 70 was the best score on a windy and cold first day, almost half the field failed to break 75 and Jack Nicklaus even lost a ball on the 10th.

On the Open's return nine years later, only 32 yards of length was added and it will be 52 yards longer again on this occasion. But there have been other more significant alterations according to Pavin.

"They have taken out a number of trees and have opened up the course a lot more visually. You can see things clearly, which is neat because that's the kind of course it is," he said.

And Tom Meeks surely has many supporters when he says: "When I heard the PGA was going to play somewhere around 7,600, that just boggles my mind.

"Shinnecock is going to prove to the world that you can have a golf course under 7,000 yards and still test the best. I can tell you right now that we are not going to fudge from these yardages. These are in gold."

Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke (both warming up for the Open at this week's Buick Classic at Westchester) certainly aren't short hitters. But they're not in the John Daly-Phil Mickelson league either and should be much encouraged when Meeks says: "Shinnecock does not favour the big hitter. Being long here has no distinct advantage. Keeping the ball in the fairway, getting the ball on the green, making sure you are in the right part of the green in reference to where the hole is cut, things like that are really important."

Meeks quotes the 540 yards par five 16th as a hole that might sound like a certain birdie for the big boys. In 1995, however, it proved to be the Waterloo for Phil Mickelson, Tom Lehman and Greg Norman. Lehman and Mickelson both took seven and the latter played it in six over for the week. The 18th at around 450 yards uphill is a severe finishing hole.

Too many US Open courses remove the skill of chipping from the game because of the thick rough within a few inches of the green.

Shinnecock, however, has plenty of areas which give the player several options if he misses the green rather than just hacking out of the cabbage with a wedge.

All of this, allied to the ever-present sea breezes, should suit the Europeans, few of whom need reminding that the trophy hasn't come across to this side of the Atlantic since Tony Jacklin triumphed at Hazeltine in 1970.