McIlroy calls for US Open set-up 'caution' after Shinnecock controversy

ByMatt Gault

BBC Sport NI senior journalist

Rory McIlroy says tournament organisers must make sure conditions at this week's US Open at Shinnecock Hills do not "get out of control" after the controversy that dominated the championship's past two visits to the New York course.

Tiger Woods led criticism of the set-up in 2004 when he said the United States Golf Association (USGA) "lost control of the course" during Retief Goosen's victory, while there were farcical scenes in 2018 when Phil Mickelson deliberately struck a moving ball to avoid his putt from running off the 13th green.

Despite the negative commentary, England's 2022 champion Matt Fitzpatrick this week said he "never believed they lost" the grip on conditions six years ago.

But McIlroy feels the USGA - which admitted to making mistakes in 2004 when preparing the Long Island layout for the championship - must factor in the possibility of heavy winds drying out the course.

"They're just going to have to be wary of not getting the greens too fast. There is expected to be a pretty heavy wind for a couple of days, so it's about making sure it doesn't get out of control," the six-time major winner told BBC Sport NI.

Speaking earlier in his news conference, the world number two pointed out the weather forecast was predicting "gusts of 35-40 miles per hour" on Thursday.

He added: "There were gusts of 25 to 30 (mph on Monday), and balls wouldn't stand on the 11th green. That's where you just have to use a little bit of caution.

McIlroy said the organisers need to "protect the competitive integrity of the tournament and make it fair for everyone", although conceded that the split between the morning and afternoon groups of players on Thursday and Friday made it difficult.

When it was put to him that the USGA may water the greens between the early and late groups on Thursday and Friday, McIlroy said the club's members "will tell you they do that every single day".

"My concern was you don't want it to look as if you've lost the golf course, and you're starting to put water on it, which I don't think is what they're going to do," he added.

"I think, especially with the heaviness of the wind on Thursday, it's probably prudent to do that.

"Friday doesn't look as windy, but I think just for, again, fairness and competitive integrity, they do it on Friday, too. But I think they've got enough bandwidth on the weekend that they probably don't need to do it.

"So, I understand it. When I first heard of it my first reaction was 'that's stupid, why are they doing that?' But then once you actually listened and you let them break it down to you, you're like, yeah, that makes sense."

Northern Ireland's McIlroy was a high-profile victim of Shinnecock in 2018 when a first-round 80 led to a missed cut, but it has not soured his opinion of a venue he regards as "the best championship test" in the United States.

Since failing to reach the weekend eight years ago, McIlroy has recorded six top-10 finishes in the past seven years, including consecutive runner-up finishes in 2023 and 2024.

During his US Open win in 2011, McIlroy carded an opening 65 on his way to finishing 16 under par, but he says patience and conservative play will be key to success at Shinnecock.

"The greens are pretty big but the area you have to hit into is quite small," he explained.

"The greens are difficult and I think you have to have a lot of patience, not going at flags and being OK with hitting it to 30 feet every time.

"You might hole a couple of those and it's a bonus, but you look at the scores here at the last few US Opens and it's all around even par, no-one is really going to get away."

18-21 June

Shinnecock Hills, New York

While much of McIlroy's news conference was spent discussing the course, he was also asked about upcoming changes to the PGA Tour.

Earlier this year, PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp unveiled proposals for the American circuit's future, which includes promotion and relegation between different tiers of tournaments and more 'signature events' with expanded fields of 120 players and 36-hole cuts.

When asked about his concerns for the tour's new-look schedule, McIlroy said he is not keen on established tournaments like the Canadian Open suffering relegated status as a "track two" event because of the "false economy" created by LIV Golf.

"I just think there's going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn't pony up $30m, so that's the tough thing," he said.

"You start to realise that the way the tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good. It was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well.

"LIV created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and cut fields, and try to support the top players, which I think needed to happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time.

"But now that LIV looks like it's less of a threat, the old ways of the PGA Tour weren't actually that bad."