For most golf course maintenance crews, work days begin with watering and mowing.
Not Jon Jennings and his staff. They start theirs with mindfulness.
Jennings is the superintendent of Shinnecock Hills, a role he has held for nearly 15 years. It’s no small task, tending to grounds of such scale and subtlety, with a celebrated William Flynn design set on nearly 300 rolling acres.
The duties are exhaustive and intensely detailed. But before the labor of the day begins, Jennings leads his crew in five minutes of meditative breathing, followed by a brisk burst of calisthenics. It is, he’ll tell you, the best way to prepare for what lies ahead — and what lies ahead right now is a national championship.
For the fifth time in its storied history, Shinnecock is getting set to host the U.S. Open. Practice rounds began Monday. Jennings and his crew, of course, began their preparations long before that.
GOLF.com has been following those preparations for months, sending cameras to Southampton starting in the dead of winter, when Shinnecock was still blanketed in snow. Our crews captured Jennings and his staff pulling protective tarps off the greens, a physically demanding job given the forceful winds that sweep the exposed property. Jennings likened it to that grade-school gym class exercise with the parachute. “You’re holding on for dear life,” he said.
The winter of 2025–26 brought unusual amounts of snow to Long Island, which was both a blessing and a burden. On one hand, the snowpack acted as a protective blanket, shielding the turf from killing cold and desiccating wind. On the other, it pushed back the start of other preparations. Once temperatures rose and the snow cleared, the crew got busy grooming bunkers battered by months of winter weather, rolling the turf, and readying everything for the fine-tuning that championship conditions demand.
Managing the workforce behind all of it is an undertaking in itself. During the off-season, Jennings oversees a staff of 13. That number swells to 40 during the regular season, and for U.S. Open week it will balloon further, with volunteers pushing the total to around 200. With that kind of firepower, the entire course can be mown in roughly two hours.
Even then, the elements keep Jennings and his team on their toes. Moisture management is among the most persistent challenges at Shinnecock, where winds arrive from every direction across the open landscape, threatening to dry out the turf. Keeping the course properly — but not excessively — hydrated is one of the central tasks of the job.
It is, by any measure, a career’s worth of work. But it’s drawing to a close. Jennings is planning to retire after 45 years in the industry. Time flies, which is partly why his morning mindfulness routine has taken on new meaning. It’s a reminder, he says, to stay present amid the controlled chaos of championship preparation.
“It happens so fast,” he said. “I have to make myself slow down and enjoy what’s happening.” You can watch the full video below.
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