Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

Overview: Shinnecock Hills is a private Southampton links course shaped by sandy ridges, open ground and the wind moving across Long Island. William Flynn’s present routing uses the natural topography rather than flattening it, and its strategic questions often come from choosing the correct side of a ridge or the right line into an offset green. The course has a spare, exposed character associated with the British Isles, but its identity is firmly rooted in the land at the eastern end of Long Island.

History: The club was founded in 1891 and was one of the five clubs that formed the USGA. Willie Davis laid out the original twelve holes, which were expanded to eighteen in 1895. After several further revisions, William Flynn designed the present course for the 1931 season, with construction by Dick Wilson of Toomey and Flynn. Shinnecock’s championship record reaches from the 1896 U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur through later U.S. Opens, Walker Cup matches and other USGA events.

Did You Know? Shinnecock’s clubhouse was built in 1892 by the architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, making it part of the club’s history from the very beginning. The building sits beside a course that has changed several times, so the property contains a visible conversation between early American golf and Flynn’s later Golden Age routing. The result is not a single frozen historical moment, but a living links landscape with more than one architectural chapter.