How local munis are benefitting from their high-profile neighbors’ U.S. Opens

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The 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club delivered on many fronts. First and foremost, the competition: Wyndham Clark led wire-to-wire to capture his second national championship, but not without heart-stopping Sunday drama. No golf fan will soon forget the rollercoaster of emotions as Clark, his healthy six-shot lead to start the day whittled away, holed a 25-footer for an improbable birdie on No. 16 after driving wildly into fescue. Likewise, his superb lag putt from more than 50 feet on the last hole to mere inches, which secured a one-stroke victory over a charging Sam Burns.

So, there was that. But as has become custom, the championship helped deliver on less headline-grabbing fronts, too. The USGA, in collaboration with the host club and the Metropolitan (N.Y.) Golf Association — one of 55 Allied Golf Associations throughout the country — also undertook a wide-ranging community engagement initiative that will provide lasting benefits across Eastern Long Island.

“Bringing the U.S. Open to a community is an opportunity to create impact that extends well beyond championship week,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan.

This year, that opportunity involves investing in the people, places and programs that make golf more accessible, sustainable and enjoyable throughout Suffolk County. It’s a region that contains such vaunted private clubs as Shinnecock Hills and neighboring National Golf Links of America and Southampton GC, as well as Maidstone Club, Friar’s Head and Atlantic GC — but also a wealth of public courses.

Over the next few years, four Suffolk County municipal facilities — Indian Island CC in Riverhead, Santapogue Creek Golf Course in West Babylon, Timber Point Golf Course in Great River and West Sayville Golf Course — will receive support from the USGA’s Green Section. Like winning a U.S. Open, the goal is as simple as the formula is complex: enhance course conditions and improve the overall player experience.

Green Energy

Championship agronomy is one of five main Green Section focus areas. The others are research; education and outreach; data and tools; and course consulting services. It’s this last program that the foursome of Suffolk County munis is receiving. And, unlike unsolicited swing tips from your buddies, this advice can be trusted.

For more than 75 years, the USGA has been providing on-site consulting to golf facilities around the country; its experts offer guidance on fine-tuning management practices, optimizing budgets and resources, and improving the golfer experience via better playing quality, environmental sustainability and economic efficiency. The idea of providing these valuable services at no cost or deeply discounted rates to local public courses as part of the community engagement initiative is, however, a more recent phenomenon.

It was first deployed in 2021, when Torrey Pines hosted the U.S. Open, with two San Diego County municipal courses, Balboa Park and Mission Bay, the beneficiaries. In 2023, the U.S. Open was back in California, at The Los Angeles Country Club (also won by Wyndham Clark), and this time the grantee was Maggie Hathaway GC, a beloved nine-hole par-3 course within the Jesse Owens community regional park in south central Los Angeles. It recently reopened after a full restoration. Last year’s U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club included among its investment Green Section help for three Pittsburgh area public courses: Bob O’Connor GC, North Park GC and South Park GC.

Shortly after the U.S. Open, Elliott Dowling, director of the Green Section’s East Region, joined three other agronomists — Brian Gietka, Mitch Leininger and Chris Neff and, based in Maryland, Florida, and South Carolina, respectively, along with assistant director of championship agronomy Eric Tragnitz — to visit the four courses. The team worked with Bennett Orlowski, the courses’ superintendent, and Peter Ganley Sr., who helps oversee county parks, to devise future improvements.

“The structure of the visits was the same as it would be for any of our clients — we have no agenda of our own,” Dowling said. “We are there completely for the golf facility.”

As if to prove the point, each course had different issues it wanted to attack. Timber Point, a Golden Age design from the renowned team of Harry Colt & C.H. Alison, is considering reestablishing its initial 18 holes, using original blueprints, after nine holes were later added. West Sayville’s concerns center mostly around weed control and tree management. Santapogue Creek (previously known as Bergen Point) has seen sea levels rise, with more saltwater coming onto a few of its fairways each year. Indian Island’s focus is general agronomics.

“At Indian Island, the staff was very concerned with how they could make the putting greens play a bit better and be as healthy as possible at as efficient a price point as possible,” said Dowling. “That’s a typical consideration at a municipal course — what can be done in-house as inexpensively as possible to maximize resources. And, no matter where we go, from the highest-end facility on down, putting greens are generally the top focus.”

“We had lost power earlier in the week and 80-mph winds had knocked over some trees, so the course wasn’t in the shape I’d hoped when the USGA arrived,” said Jesse Johnson, a 25-year Suffolk County parks veteran who serves as the golf course supervisor at Indian Island. “Everyone was very helpful. Aeration, top dressing, water issues — we covered a lot, and I got several useful tips from a chat with Mitch about little things he’s learned along the way. We’re all excited about working with everyone moving forward.”  

As always, the Green Section consulting team brought along all their proprietary tools, including the USGA Moisture Meter (a device that precisely captures soil moisture, salinity and temperature metrics), the GS3 golf ball (a high-tech “smart” ball with internal sensors that measures various aspects of the putting green) and the Deacon management system (a software platform and mobile app that uses the compiled data to map conditions, track surface management and log maintenance). In this instance, having the entire regional team on-site brought an outsized dose of expertise and proved a big benefit.

“Between us, we’ve seen a lot,” Dowling noted. “I thought that among the four of us, we could come up with solutions to their various issues. We see a lot of coastal courses, and deal with saltwater, different grass types and so on. It worked out very well.”

The initial consultations were entirely gratis. Moving forward, the plan is to provide continued access to USGA tools and flexible, discounted consulting services on a contract basis.

Team Players

At the U.S. Open, it takes a host of staff, vendors, volunteers, talents and perspectives to make such an enormous championship run smoothly. The U.S. Open’s community engagement initiative is no different, with the USGA always well supported in its endeavors by the host club and, this year, the Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA).

“Nothing about hosting a U.S. Open is more satisfying than the opportunity to spotlight and help constituents of our local community,” said Shinnecock Hills president Brett Pickett. “We are incredibly grateful to the USGA for its leadership, and the MGA for its partnership, in continuing the legacy of community investment around our national championship.”

The MGA’s CEO, Brian Mahoney, echoed those sentiments.

“The MGA is proud to partner with the USGA in advancing these critical investments in the game — initiatives that expand opportunity, strengthen the sport’s positive impact and help move golf forward for the next generation,” Mahoney said.

That next generation will now very likely include more members of the Shinnecock Nation — supporting youth programming within it is another key aspect of the community engagement initiative. The goal is to build upon existing efforts to introduce its young people to golf, including expanding access to instruction, equipment and playing opportunities. This continues a remarkable through-line that began with Shinnecock Nation member Oscar Bunn, who competed in the first U.S. Open held at Shinnecock Hills, in 1896.

“The USGA has been a longtime supporter of Shinnecock Nation, and we have seen the impact that support has on our youth over the years,” said Lisa Goree, chairwoman of the Shinnecock Council of Trustees. “We’re excited about this next chapter and look forward to welcoming back the U.S. Open.”

That return will happen in 2036, as part of a historic back-to-back doubleheader with the U.S. Women’s Open also playing out at Shinnecock Hills. No doubt the course will be in spectacular shape — and so, too, will the four Suffolk County public courses that will have benefited from the most recent championship initiative. In the interim, those fairways will be populated with a broad array of happy local golfers getting their money’s worth, and then some.