3 Things to Know: 126th U.S. Open, Round 1

For the sixth time, the U.S. Open Championship is being contested at historic Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, one of the five founding clubs of the USGA. The classic William Flynn design has routinely proven to be one of the toughest tests in the game, with just three players managing to finish under par over 72 holes: Raymond Floyd (1986 champion), Retief Goosen (2004 champion) and Phil Mickelson (’04 runner-up).

Even when Tommy Fleetwood carded a final-round 63 here in 2018 to finish a stroke behind champion Brooks Koepka, his 72-hole total was 2-over 282.

Weather and wind are two of the course’s main defense mechanisms and will likely play a huge role in determining the winning score for the 126th edition of the National Open. Players can expect the kind of firm and fast conditions the USGA desires for all of its national championships.

On Thursday morning at 6:35 EDT, James Nicholas, a Yale University alum and now a professional from Scarsdale, N.Y., will have the honor of hitting the opening tee shot. One hundred fifty-five competitors will follow, a group that includes 20 amateurs, the most since the U.S. Open was last contested here eight years ago.

Here are 3 things to know going into Round 1:

Grand Stage?

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship and The Open Championship in 2025 for his third and fourth major titles, will get his first chance at golf immortality: the career Grand Slam.

In April 2025, Rory McIlroy became the latest player to complete the career Grand Slam with his victory at the Masters Tournament, joining Tiger Woods, Gene Sarazen, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gary Player in that elite fraternity. Player is the only person to complete the feat at a U.S. Open, doing so in 1965 at Bellerive Country Club, in St. Louis, Mo.

What’s interesting this week is that the golf world could witness career Grand Slams in consecutive years. Player and Nicklaus (1966 Open Championship at Muirfield) were the last to achieve that feat 60 years ago. Now Scheffler, who only has one PGA Tour title in 2026 (American Express Championship), can follow McIlroy into the group.

And it can happen on his 30th birthday and Father’s Day: Scheffler, a father of two, will celebrate both on Sunday.

“For me, would it be a dream to win the U.S. Open? Of course,” said Scheffler, the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and a member of the victorious 2017 USA Walker Cup Team. “But at the end of the day, the Grand Slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far.

“So, when it comes to this golf tournament, I'm going to step on the first tee and remind myself I've done everything I possibly could in order to play well, and now it's just a matter of going out there and trying to execute and kind of going back to enjoying the competition versus feeling like you have to win for some reason.”

Winds of Change

If the forecast for Thursday’s opening round holds true, look for blustery conditions, especially as the day progresses. Winds are expected to be relatively calm for the early morning starters – in the 10-mph range – but will increase to 20 mph and possibly as high as 35 or 40 mph by the afternoon.

If that happens, the course could become extremely challenging, with conditions often found at venues in the United Kingdom. Don’t be surprised to see the USGA syringe greens during the round to ensure that the putting surfaces don’t become unplayable.

“I think as the week goes on, you have the ability for the course to get firmer and faster,” said McIlroy, the 2011 U.S. Open champion. “We've seen what's happened here the last two U.S. Opens. It doesn't need to get that fast to play incredibly difficult and challenging.

“I'd say the greens [on Monday] probably averaged about 11.5 [feet on the Stimpmeter]. They certainly don't need to be any faster than that. I think with the wind they're expecting on Thursday, it seems they'd want to get the greens back to the 10s...10.5 or something like that, just because of how heavy the wind is going to be.

“There were only gusts of 25 to 30 yesterday, and balls wouldn't stand on the 11th green. That's where you just have to use a little bit of caution. Thursday and Friday are difficult because there are two waves, and you want to try to protect the competitive integrity of the tournament and try to make it somewhat fair for everyone. Obviously, it's an outdoor sport, and you can't control everything.”

Fun With Groupings

The USGA has always tried to have some fun when it comes to grouping competitors for the opening two rounds. Of course, there is the traditional threesome of the reigning U.S. Open and British Open champion with the current U.S. Amateur winner. This year, it’s J.J. Spaun, Scheffler and 18-year-old Mason Howell, an incoming University of Georgia freshman who won the Amateur at The Olympic Club last August as the No. 63 seed.

But the USGA’s Jeff Hall, who is retiring this year as managing director of Open championships, and Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer also came up with a couple of fun groupings, some obvious and some not so obvious.

How about pairing two Frenchmen (Ugo Coussaud and Adrien Saddier) with Jackson Van Paris? Vive la France!

Sahith Theegala, amateur Jackson Koivun and Michael Kim are all past Haskins Award winners (college player of the year). Pierceson Coody, Zac Blair and Kevin Roy all have relatives who have played in the U.S. Open; Coody’s grandfather Charles Coody won the 1971 Masters, and Roy’s father, Jim, qualified for two U.S. Opens and will play in the U.S. Senior Open in two weeks.

Sungjae Im, Lucas Herbert and Kristoffer Reitan all made their U.S. Open debuts in 2018 at Shinnecock. Ben Kohles, Matt McCarty and Johnny Keefer are former/current No. 1 players on the Korn Ferry Tour. We even have the oldest player in the field (2025 U.S. Senior Open champ Padraig Harrington) paired with the youngest (17-year-old phenom Miles Russell). Cameron Smith is the third member of the grouping.

Past U.S. Open champions are part of two groups (Dustin Johnson, Wyndham Clark and Gary Woodland; Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm), while past U.S. Amateur winners make up another (Viktor Hovland, Bryson DeChambeau and Matt Fitzpatrick). The latter two are also U.S. Open champions.

The USGA also found a “-man” group with Max Greyserman, Brian Harman and Jacob Bridgeman.

Just a little fodder for fans and media to chew on before the weekend and a champion is crowned on Sunday afternoon.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.