At the US Open, the USGA, not Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, runs the course. Every morning firmness reading, every hole location, every decision about whether to hand-water comes from championship agronomy staff, not the club. The setup runs on a cycle: the evening behind play, the crew walks greens with portable moisture meters; the morning before play, they take nine GS3 firmness readings per green, then double-cut, cut holes, and make a judgment call on a targeted hand-spritz.
Shinnecock runs this on Poa annua greens over a free-draining sand base with no SubAir safety net. In 2004 the seventh green baked out and was hand-watered between groups mid-round. In 2018, an unforecast wind pushed Saturday scoring to 75.33, and Mike Davis said, ‘we just missed it with the wind.’
For 2026, the USGA and the club agreed to ‘play the architecture.’ Nine readings a green. Hand-watered by judgment, not by switch. The club owns the ground the other fifty-one weeks of the year, but for championship week the decisions belong to the governing body, and the crew on the ground lives with the margin between them.