The 126th U.S. Open begins Thursday at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, and Scottie Scheffler is the name at the center of it all. By Sunday, he could become only the seventh man to complete the career Grand Slam.
That is why US Open TV coverage is already focused on a week that can change the shape of the season. Rory McIlroy is in the field too, 15 years after winning the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, and Xander Schauffele arrives with seven top-10s in nine U.S. Open starts and no finish worse than tied for 14th.
Shinnecock has earned this kind of attention before. Brooks Koepka won here at 1 over, Raymond Floyd needed 1 under in 1986, Corey Pavin won at even par in 1995, and Retief Goosen took the title at 4 under in 2004 while Phil Mickelson finished 2 under. That same year, 28 golfers failed to break 80 on Sunday and the average score was 78.7.
Matt Fitzpatrick, who was the only golfer on tour with three victories this season, said the course is built around the second shot and that the fairways are a little bit wider this time. He added that the U.S. Open tests every part of a player’s game, but Shinnecock in particular demands careful work on the greens because of how severe they are.
The hardest part for Scheffler is not the venue alone. He comes in without a win in his past 11 starts, even though he has three runner-up finishes and seven top-10s on the PGA Tour, so the favorite’s label is carrying more weight than the recent results. Jon Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open and has won twice in the LIV Golf League this season, is another player built for this stage, and Cameron Young returns after winning twice and posting six top-10s in 2026 in front of a home crowd again this week.
Shinnecock has a way of stripping the conversation down to execution, and the setup is expected to do that again. The winner will have to survive the tee shot, the approach and the greens all week, not just one hot stretch, and Sunday should decide whether Scheffler turns the year’s biggest question into the one result that defines it.
