The US Open returns to Shinnecock Hills
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York is one of those venues that needs no introduction in golf circles. One of the five founding clubs of the USGA, it has hosted the US Open multiple times and has a reputation for producing some of the most demanding, unforgiving conditions in the game.
The USGA have a habit of setting Shinnecock up to punish anything less than precision. Narrow fairways, thick rough, greens that can become almost unplayable when the wind picks up off the Atlantic. It rewards patience and ball striking above everything else. Power helps, but it won't save you here.
The field this week is as strong as you'd expect for a major. The conversations before the week started were the usual ones: the form players, the course horses, who's peaking at the right time. All of that matters. But for me, one name stood out before a ball had even been struck.
25 years at the top of the game
Adam Scott makes his 100th consecutive major start this week at Shinnecock Hills. Let that land for a second.
100 starts in a row means 25 years of being good enough to qualify for the biggest events in golf. 25 years in the top percentile of the best players in the world. In a sport where careers are made and lost in a matter of seasons, that alone is extraordinary.
But it also means 25 years without a serious injury. 25 years of looking after a body well enough to keep competing at the highest level. No rebuilds, no long spells on the sidelines, no seasons written off. The modern game is more physically demanding than it has ever been. The athleticism required to compete week in, week out at tour level, and then show up for every major across a quarter of a century, is something that doesn't get talked about enough.
"The swing has always been the talking point with Adam Scott. Rightfully so. But the discipline behind 25 years of continuous major golf might be the more impressive achievement."
Scott's swing is one of the most discussed in the history of the game. Butch Harmon, Tiger's former coach, once called it the best swing on tour. It is fluid, repeatable, and aesthetically it belongs in a different era - the kind of swing you'd draw if someone asked you to sketch the perfect golf action. That has always been the talking point around him.
But the discipline and physical dedication that sit behind 25 years of continuous major golf - the training, the recovery, the mental commitment to keeping the body competitive decade after decade - that might be the more impressive achievement. It's certainly the less visible one.
Scott won the Masters in 2013, which will always be his defining moment for most people. The putt on the 18th at Augusta, the scenes that followed. All of that is permanent. But what he's built quietly in the years since - this streak, this consistency of presence at the game's biggest events - says as much about who he is as a professional as any single result.
A remarkable milestone from one of the game's true gentlemen. Whatever happens at Shinnecock Hills this week, that number stands on its own.
