Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Shinnecock Hills G.C.

Club information
Location	Shinnecock Hills, N.Y.
Coordinates	40°53′46″N 72°26′24″W / 40.896°N 72.440°W / 40.896; -72.440Coordinates: 40°53′46″N 72°26′24″W / 40.896°N 72.440°W / 40.896; -72.440
Established	1931
Type	Private Equity
Operated by	Gregg Deger (General Manager)
Total holes	18
Tournaments hosted	U.S. Open (4 Times)
Designed by	Willie Dunn, Jr./(R) Dick Wilson
Par	70
Length	6996 (2004 U.S. Open)
Course rating	74.5

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is a prestigious links-style golf club located in the hamlet of Shinnecock Hills in the town of Southampton on Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. It has hosted the U.S. Open four times in three different centuries.

It lays claim to being the oldest formal organized golf club in the United States (1891) and it claims to have the oldest golf clubhouse in the U.S. (1892) and the first club to admit women (which it did from the start).

History

The club traces its roots to an 1889-1890 trip by William K. Vanderbilt, Edward Meade and Duncan Cryder, to Biarritz in southern France where they encountered Willie Dunn, from Scotland, who was building a golf course at the resort.^[1]

Back in the United States Meade and Cryder scouted for a place for a golf course near New York City. They chose the sandhills adjoining the Long Island Railroad just east of the Shinnecock Canal. The 80 acre parcel was purchased for $2,500 and 44 original members signed up for $100 each.^[1]

Willie Davis from the Royal Montreal Club designed a 12-hole course that opened in late summer 1891.^[1] Members of Shinnecock Indian Nation helped build the course (which is on land they have laid claim to and which remains in litigation). Dunn was to tell a reporter that the sand dunes were Indian burial mounds giving rise to an urban legend.

Stanford White designed the club house which opened in 1892 and is said to be the oldest golf club house in the United States.^[1] In 1893, a 9 hole ladies only course was designed and built at Shinnecock Hills.^[2]

In 1894 Dunn arrived and added six more holes bringing the total to 18. That same year Dunn won an informal attempt to establish a national championship at Newport, Rhode Island . The following year, Shinnecock was one of five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association which held the first U.S. Open in 1895 in Newport.^[1]

In 1896 Shinnecock hosted the second U.S. Open. Many of the golfers broke 80 and the course which was playing less than 5,000 yards. This led to demands to make the course more difficult. Participating the 1896 open was African American John Shippen.

In 1901, the popular ladies course was abandoned to allow for a lengthening and redesign by Charles B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, retaining five of Dunn's original holes.^[2]

In 1937 William Flynn redesigned the course into a 6,740 yard configuration that is the current basic layout. Flynn's design retains five of Macdonald and Raynor's holes and the green of a sixth hole. Since then the course has been extended to its current 6,996 yards status by the addition of extra tees.

In 2005, the Shinnecock Indian Nation filed a suit seeking return of 3,500 acres including the golf course.

Major tournaments hosted

Scorecard

Awards

Shinnecock Hills was ranked second in Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Courses Ranking for 2007, 2008, and third in 2009.

See also

• National Golf Links of America (located immediately north of the course across Sebonac Road)

References

External links

• Satellite Images and Photos of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
• Golf Club Atlas: Guide to Shinnecock Hills course

Coordinates: 40°53′46″N 72°26′24″W / 40.896°N 72.440°W / 40.896; -72.440