U.S. Open preparations at Shinnecock Hills rolling along with 100 days to go
USGA Marketing Director, Lynn LaRocca, in Manhattan on Tuesday. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Tuesday marked 100 days until the 126th U.S. Open tees off at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on June 18.
As excitement builds, the United States Golf Association’s plan is taking shape in Southampton. The rough winter affected all of Long Island — Shinnecock Hills included — but operations at one of golf’s cathedrals are going smoothly.
“The course is a little wet right now, but it's looking good,” U.S. Open assistant director John Ryan Celiberti told Newsday in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Jon Jennings, our course superintendent, he'll get it in great shape. We still got some greens tarped out there. Right now, we just started construction for the build, so we're rolling from an operational standpoint.
“But the course is looking good for getting how much rain and snow it did in the offseason.”
Celiberti, a Lynbrook native who will work his seventh U.S. Open, lives in Southampton and is the on-site lead for the championship, which includes overseeing parking, transportation, public safety, club relations, community relations and more.
The USGA encourages fans attending June’s tournament to take the train to Shinnecock Hills if they can. A temporary Long Island Rail Road station will be built across the street from Shinnecock Hills and adjacent to Stony Brook’s Southampton campus, and fans will be able to walk to the course over a bridge built over County Road 39. Celiberti said that general fan parking will be at Calverton Executive Airpark, with a free non-stop shuttle bringing fans to and from the course.
U.S. Open senior director Eric Steimer told Newsday in January that the construction of the “stadium” environment surrounding the course is about a three-month process that was scheduled to begin in late February. Celiberti said the February blizzard “threw a little bit of a wrench” into the plan, pushing things back a week or two.
“We're getting back on pace at this timeframe,” Celiberti said. “I think we're rolling at this point. We're already starting on our facilities . . . with our village [a double-decker corporate hospitality structure] on [the 17th hole], our merchandise pavilion, and then our village on [the first hole]. So when you come out here, you'll be able to see some scaffolding going up out on the golf course and some temporary roads that are going out there.”
As part of the 100-day celebration, Lynn LaRocca — the managing director of marketing and creative for the USGA — was part of a group bringing the U.S. Open trophy to various stops around Manhattan, which was sunny and over 70 degrees on Tuesday.
“It's 100 days until the U.S. Open, and who couldn't get more excited with the weather that we're experiencing right now?” she told Newsday outside Rockefeller Center. “It's spring, which means summer is right around the corner, and the U.S. Open, the 126th U.S. Open, is at Shinnecock . . . We are extraordinarily excited.
“We've been walking around the city talking to people, and everybody’s really pumped about it.”
From a marketing perspective, LaRocca noted one storyline that makes this year’s U.S. Open different from years past: world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler looking to secure the fourth and final leg of the career Grand Slam. The Sunday of the U.S. Open is not only Father’s Day, but Scheffler’s 30th birthday.
Celiberti praised the working relationship the USGA has had with the Town of Southampton, the Shinnecock Nation and Suffolk County in preparation for the U.S. Open. He specifically mentioned Ryan Murphy, who works for the Town of Southampton, as someone he talks to almost daily helping him with special event permits.
“It's really nice to be able to have people that are really willing to go the extra mile for us as an organization to make sure this U.S. Open goes as smoothly as possible,” Celiberti said.
U.S. Open tickets for all seven days — the three practice days and four competition days — remain on sale at USOpen.com. Gallery tickets for Sunday’s final round are listed at $267 apiece.
Celiberti mentioned that there is stress that comes with “a lot of things to do” in fewer than 100 days, but the USGA has “a good plan in place.”
“I think our team is excited to be able to showcase this championship,” he added. “It's going to be a lot of fun.”
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.
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