Michael Kim said the Shinnecock Hills greens were “spongy” and “quite bumpy” on Tuesday, but by Wednesday afternoon they were playing like a course ready for the sixth U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy’s practice round, played with Mason Howell and Hamilton Coleman, showed greens that were firm, not soft, and dotted with dark healed aerification holes rather than the rough surfaces Kim had complained about.
That mattered because the concerns had spread before the championship even began. Kim had posted that the greens had “aerification holes,” a description that raised questions about how far along the setup really was on the eve of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. The answer from Wednesday was clearer: the surfaces were more than ready for the test.
McIlroy’s round offered the most visible rebuttal to the Tuesday complaints. The greens were not spongy by then, and they were not bumpy either. They looked like William Flynn greens under major-championship scrutiny, firm enough for pace and clean enough to putt on, even as the course still showed the marks of recent work.
The detail that made the scene feel immediate came when Hamilton Coleman smashed a driver off the 10th tee and McIlroy gave a subtle nod. Mason Howell, both he and Coleman 18-year-old native Georgians who will matriculate at the University of Georgia at the end of summer, was in the group too, and his embroidered belt with ANGC stenciled on it stood out as the players moved through the round. It was a quiet reminder that the focus here was not on noise from outside the ropes but on what the greens were actually doing in front of the players.
That leaves the sharper question in place: whether Kim caught the greens at their worst on Tuesday or whether his description overstated the problem. Wednesday’s look did not match the complaint. With the sixth U.S. Open about to begin at Shinnecock Hills, the course no longer looked like it was inviting a putting crisis.
