Opens at Shinnecock: A 10 by Phil; A camera toss by Tiger’s caddie

Phil Mickelson took a 10 on a hole. Intentionally. Tiger Woods’ caddie broke a photographer’s camera. Also, intentionally. Ah, yes. Memories of US Opens at Shinnecock Hills. 

It’s back to Shinnecock, the scene of these incidents—and some memorable golf—for the 126th Open starting Thursday at that infuriating course far out on Long Island. The Open is supposed to be America’s national championship. At times, it also seems to be a study in frustration. No one ever said golf was going to be easy. However, at Shinnecock, named for the Native American tribe once sheltered there, it has been historically difficult and maddening for some competitors.

They held The Open at Shinnecock for the first time in 1896. That it didn’t return for 90 years had less to do with the fact that someone named James Foulis was the winner than the improvement in balls and clubs that made the 4,400-yard course too short for anything but miniature golf. 

If you have been paying attention, that even with longer and more severe layouts, hosting The Open there is a worry that the equipment now in use and the strength of the players using it is making courses of the 21st century too short. But the history of Shinnecock Opens is not so much about shots getting to the greens but the shots on the greens—the putts.

In the 2018 Open, at the 13th green, Mickelson showed his disgust with the set-up by whacking his ball around as if he was playing croquet right there in front of his playing partners and a national TV audience.

He could have been disqualified, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was penalized for hitting a moving ball and ended up with a 10 on the hole. And thus, he would remain winless in the Open, his six runner-up finishes a painful reminder of hardly any sort of compensation for the incident. 

Oh yes, Brooks Koepka won that 2018 Open, making him one of the few with consecutive victories in the tournament.

The next Open, 2004, eventually won by Retief Goosen, the complaint was that the greens were so dry they wouldn’t hold shots. So right there, unprecedentedly, the USGA sent out workers to water the greens. That time, notably and probably legitimately, Mickelson was among the most adamant critics.

Corey Paven was the winner of the Open at Shinnecock in 1995, but what so many remembered was a situation with Tiger Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams, who grabbed a photographer’s camera on the practice green and threw it to the ground.

Tiger had glared at John Roca of the New York Daily News, and Williams, who could be nasty in his unofficial role as Woods’ guardian—not that Tiger needed one—took it upon himself to respond.

The camera wasn’t damaged.  Three weeks later, Williams apologized.

You wonder what might happen this year at Shinnecock, where at previous Opens the golf itself has been overshadowed by everything else. No, Phil and Tiger are not here.