This week’s U.S. Open on Long Island will be played at one of the cathedrals of golf, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, where there will be a smaller footprint than is typical for the United States Golf Association.
The USGA has set up three “anchor sites” for the Open: Pinehurst, Oakmont Country Club and Pebble Beach Golf Links. While Shinnecock is not an anchor site, it is what USGA Chief Commercial Officer Jon Podany described as a “core” U.S. Open site, along with Merion Golf Club and The Country Club outside Boston. They are smaller and tougher logistically to navigate, but are among the most highly regarded clubs in the country.
Total attendance at Shinnecock will come in around 155,000. Last year, Oakmont drew 209,000, and in 2024, Pinehurst attracted 220,000.
“We strategically feel like, over the five-year period, if we have some Pinehurst and Pebbles and Oakmonts in that five years, then we can afford to go to the Shinnecock and Merion and Country Clubs, where we’re going to have a little smaller footprint,” Podany said. “It balances out.”
Shinnecock is one of five founding clubs of the USGA, and the second U.S. Open was played there in 1896. Also, it’s the only club to host the Open in three different centuries.
There are a handful of reasons for the smaller footprint, one being ingress and egress to the golf course at its remote location. Said Podany: “We don’t want people sitting in traffic for two hours.”
The USGA has made efforts to alleviate traffic concerns. At the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black last fall, traffic was a major point of contention in and out of the golf course. At Shinnecock Hills, which is far more remote than Bethpage Black, a train stop is across the street from the golf course. Organizers have also added a dedicated shuttle bus lane to bring attendees to and from the club.
“Our strategy has been that we’re willing to go to some smaller-footprint sites because we think it’s important to the history, tradition, heritage of the U.S. Open, and Shinnecock is certainly one of those,” Podany said. “So we have to right-size attendance and hospitality to make sure that we can deliver a good experience at a place like Shinnecock.”
Hospitality highlights
One area of right-sizing at Shinnecock will be on the hospitality side. In 2024, the USGA introduced its “1895 Club,” a massive structure built into the 18th-hole grandstand at Pinehurst No. 2. Last year at Oakmont, 1895 was a free-standing structure in the middle of the golf course.
This year at Shinnecock, the 1895 Club is part of the “Village on 17,” a double-decker venue overlooking the penultimate par-3 17th hole. Passes to 1895 featuring a five-day package (Wednesday through Sunday) can be had for $14,000, while daily passes cost between $3,200 and $4,000.
One of the agreements with Shinnecock Hills, Podany said, is that the USGA would essentially build fewer structures on the property than when it last hosted the tournament in 2018. “You’ll see a cleaner presentation of the golf course,” he said.
The USGA is using more double-decker structures for hospitality. Because of the increased limited inventory and natural inflation, sales were tracking about 50% higher than 2018, Podany said. He also noted that sales would end up about $800,000 to $1 million higher than the USGA anticipated across all hospitality.
The USGA will once again have a 34,000-square-foot merchandise pavilion. However, there won’t be a second satellite pavilion, like at Oakmont.
Media moves
On the media side, this week is the first U.S. Open under the USGA’s new media rights deal that was struck with NBC Sports and Versant late last summer.
The Open will continue to have a minimum of 25 hours of coverage. But in a twist, the final hour of play on Thursday and Friday will be carried on NBC, NBC Sports Network and Peacock.
In recent years, the last hour of coverage was bumped to Peacock, with mostly qualifiers and lesser-name players completing their rounds. Now, select tee times for big-name players will be pushed back, meaning they will conclude their rounds coverage wraps up. Thursday will conclude on Peacock and NBC Sports Network, while Friday will wrap solely on NBC.
“We always peak at the very end of a broadcast for golf,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella told Sports Business Journal when the deal was struck. “That time between 7-8 [p.m.] is a great time for golf.”
NBC and Versant’s deal with the USGA runs through 2032.
J.J. Spaun’s win in last year’s Open at Oakmont averaged 5.4 million viewers on NBC on Sunday, an 8% drop over the year prior for Bryson DeChambeau’s victory. Viewership numbers likely will receive a boost from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel methodology this week, as well as from the return to Shinnecock Hills.
It was also announced last week that former U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk will join USA Sports’ broadcast team as an Open analyst and will work the Open Championship and other PGA Tour events throughout 2026. He served as a USA analyst for a handful of events earlier this year and received mostly positive reviews.
Furyk, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for next year’s matches in Ireland, has been seen by some in the industry as a possible lead analyst for NBC’s golf coverage in the future. NBC has shuffled its booth around since Johnny Miller retired in 2019, and the network had Paul Azinger as lead analyst for a handful of years before testing out others throughout 2024, including Brandel Chamblee and Luke Donald.
Now, Kevin Kisner is in his second year in the lead analyst chair for NBC. But the 42-year-old Kisner has continued to play a handful of PGA Tour events, and also officially joined Barstool Sports’ “Fore Play” podcast in March.
Furyk, meanwhile, is 56 and has played sparingly on the PGA Tour Champions due to injuries. Asked by SBJ in March if he would be open to more broadcast work, Furyk said he would be interested.
“It’s not that I miss the travel, but I guess I missed being around the tour. I miss being around the guys,” Furyk said. “And TV has a little of that same feel for golf in one respect. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into it, a lot of practice that goes into it, getting ready, and then the camera goes on. It’s a lot like hitting a golf shot.”
