Inside the course prep for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club

The U.S. Open is arguably golf’s toughest test, and perhaps no venue is more fit to host it than Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

One of the masterminds behind how the Southampton course will look and play this week? Darin Bevard.

Bevard, 56, is the senior director of championship agronomy for the United States Golf Association, which conducts the U.S. Open. Agronomy is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production and soil management.”

If you’re wondering what Bevard’s role is relative to the U.S. Open, which begins Thursday at Shinnecock Hills, he described himself as “the go-between” between the USGA setup team and the golf course maintenance team as part of a collaborative effort to create “a tough but fair test for a great U.S. Open.”

“I work with Jon Jennings – the [Shinnecock Hills] golf course superintendent – to basically interpret the course prep memo that is provided and work to provide the standards that our course setup team is after on a daily basis,” he told Newsday on Monday afternoon.

Bevard, from Pennsylvania, is in his 30th year with the USGA, and this week will mark his second U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (the other in 2018). He said the preparation for this one started “in earnest” 3 1/2 years ago, but really dates back “10 or 11 years” as they were preparing for the 2018 Open.

He revealed some of the nuances that the average golf fan might not know about course setup, especially for a tournament that plays on courses publicly perceived as intentionally difficult.

“I think they'd be surprised at how much thought – there's a lot of data collected, but a lot of it's art, too,” he said. “It's feel. It's not just data. So I believe if they sat in the room as we're trying to make decisions, they would be shocked at the amount of information that's shared and used to try to make the best possible decisions for course setup and for the U.S. Open.”

When Brooks Koepka won the 2018 Open, his winning score was 1-over par. A score of 7-over still resulted in a top-10 finish. There were plenty of complaints eight years ago, including from two-time major champion Zach Johnson. He responded then to a Sky Sports question about the fairness of the course by saying “we’ve surpassed” the edge and “they’ve lost the golf course.”

Shinnecock Hills, known as one of the cathedrals of golf, is characterized by its massive wind gusts, one-of-a-kind greens and natural layout. This year, it will have the widest fairways at a U.S. Open in 75 years, according to John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer.

Bevard said his main focus is on those putting greens, which consist of Poa annua grass.

“[Poa annua putting greens] have a lot of great characteristics in terms of a putting surface,” he said. “But one of the challenges with it is it doesn't have as good a resistance to environmental stress. So we may have to syringe greens and do things like that that we always have in our back pocket at championships, but we just haven't needed it … I think it's just the open nature of the site, and the amount of wind that you can have here.

“It can really change playing conditions quickly.”

Shinnecock Hills’ wind speeds could sit in the low-20s mph and gust into the 30s. Bevard said adjustments will have to be made so balls don’t move on greens, adding that Thursday’s greens likely will be a “little slower than what you would see for a typical U.S. Open, but that's what needs to be done so that we can play golf.”

Jackson Koivun, the 21-year-old, No. 1 amateur golfer in the world who will join the PGA Tour this summer, had the first news conference of the week Monday. Talking about the greens, he said: “From what I've heard, they're shutting off the water soon.”

But if the leading score is 3-over or 3-under par through a round or two, don’t expect any vast changes to the course.

“No, John Bodenhamer has made it pretty clear that we're going to focus on keeping the golf course steady and not make any leaps or changes or whatever based on scoring,” Bevard said.

So it’ll be a consistent Shinnecock Hills, potentially with some incremental changes.

“Nothing major,” he added. “No major jumps or anything of that nature.”

All that’s left: four rounds of golf, and an eventual winner from 156 players.

“It's the U.S. Open,” Bevard said. “If you don't enjoy working here, you're probably in the wrong business. If you’re on the golf course maintenance side of things, you're preparing for one of the biggest golf events in the world. So it's awesome, and I'm really excited to do it.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.