Standing behind the 10th green at Shinnecock Hills, watching a tour pro stare at his ball sitting 30 yards away on a shaved, sloping bank, you understand something about US Open golf that television doesn’t fully capture. He’s not deciding how to chip. He’s deciding what will happen if he gets it wrong – because at Shinnecock, the wrong chip doesn’t give you 10 feet for bogey. It gives you 75 yards back down the fairway and another go at the exact same nightmare.
I’ve watched enough of these situations at links-adjacent courses – and played links golf badly enough – to know that the short game at Shinnecock isn’t just difficult. It’s a different game, operating on rules that most golfers don’t know exist. This week, you’re going to see six specific chip shots executed at or near their limits. Here’s exactly what those shots are, why the course demands them, and what you can actually take from watching them into your own game.
Quick Answer: At the 2026 US Open, Shinnecock Hills demands six distinct chip shots: the high handle chip, bump into the slope, steep descent flop, low-check “Scottie Special,” medium obstacle chip, and downwind escape chip. Which one a pro chooses depends entirely on green firmness, wind direction, and which side of the green they’re short-sided on.
Why Shinnecock Makes Chipping the Hardest Thing in Golf This Week
Three things combine at Shinnecock to make every shot around the greens a decision tree, not a routine.
First: shaved run-offs surround nearly every green. The USGA doesn’t grow rough right to the collar — instead, the short grass continues 20 to 40 yards off the putting surface in multiple directions. Balls that miss the green don’t stop. They keep going, finding slopes and collection areas designed by William Flynn in the 1930s specifically to punish imprecision. Greens that push up above the surroundings mean a miss long rolls away from you down an 8-foot bank. A miss short can roll 30 yards back down the fairway. There’s no cushioning rough to catch anything.
Second: firm, sandy soil. Shinnecock’s Long Island terrain is essentially linksland — sandy subsoil that drains fast and firms up even after modest wind. The ball doesn’t plug. It checks once, maybe twice, then releases. Any shot that relies on spin to stop near the hole has a narrow margin for error when the ground is playing this firm.
Third: wind off the Atlantic. Forecasts this week put gusts up to 30 mph, shifting direction across the rounds. Wind doesn’t just affect ball flight on approach shots — it changes every chip decision, every landing zone calculation, every speed judgment when the ball’s running along the ground toward the hole. A chip that’s perfect in still air becomes a disaster with a downwind gust behind it.
Those three factors, stacked together, are why US Open 2026 short game matters more than at almost any other major venue.
The Counterintuitive Truth: Slower Greens Actually Make Chipping Harder Here
The USGA announced that green speeds at Shinnecock this week will start between 11.5 and 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. That sounds fast — and it is, by normal standards. But the 2025 US Open at Oakmont started Thursday at 15.5. Nearly four feet faster.
Here’s what most coverage misses: slower greens at Shinnecock don’t make chipping easier. They make it harder.
Rory McIlroy explained it during practice rounds this week better than any broadcast analyst has: softer greens mean the ball runs away from the greens rather than stopping on them, because the soil below the green surface holds pace while the grass above it doesn’t. Players trying to bump the ball into the upslopes around the greens — a standard Shinnecock technique — find that soft greens absorb too much speed from the ball, leaving it short of the slope it was supposed to use to check. So they have to carry the slope entirely. Which means a flop shot. Which means they’re now playing a 64-degree wedge on a firm surface with a 30mph crosswind, trying to land the ball on a green smaller than a good-sized living room.
Faster greens would have allowed pros to use the slope as a speed-killer. The USGA’s decision to soften the setup has, paradoxically, made the short game decisions more complicated and less forgiving. That’s a story nobody watching on NBC is going to hear explained this week.
Every Chip Shot You’ll See at Shinnecock This Week (And Where)
Here are the six shots. Watch for them specifically. Once you know what you’re looking for, the short game coverage becomes an entirely different experience.
The six Shinnecock chip shots pros will use this week:
- High handle chip — short fringe carry, long roll on green
- Bump into the slope — lands below the upslope, checks dead
- Steep descent flop — lob wedge, near-vertical descent, stops fast
- Low-check “Scottie Special” — low flight, hard skid, emergency brake at the end
- Medium obstacle chip — flies over something in the first third, then rolls
- Downwind escape chip — soft, slow, high to counteract wind at back
The High Handle Chip (Short Fringe, Long Green)
This is the easiest of the six to recognize. The player’s hands stay high, grip near their body, and they essentially putt the ball with a lofted wedge. The shot jumps off the face with almost no spin, lands just past the fringe, and rolls out like a long putt. Zero backspin. Zero stop. It’s the club’s loft providing a tiny amount of loft to clear the fringe, and then gravity doing the rest.
You’ll see this shot at holes 1, 3, and 14, where the greens have open approaches and the fringe is narrow — just enough grass to make a putter awkward but not enough to demand anything fancy. The ball runs out 25 to 40 feet after landing, often chasing toward the cup if the player reads the speed right.
The Bump Into the Slope
At Shinnecock, several greens are built up above their surroundings — pushed up artificially by Flynn’s 1930s routing to use the natural wind exposure of the property. This means players who miss long find themselves looking up at a green that’s 6 to 10 feet above them. The standard play is to land the ball just below the slope, let the slope absorb the speed, and have the ball trickle up onto the putting surface on its own.
Firm greens make this shot work perfectly. Soft greens — which is what players are dealing with this week, thanks to early rain — absorb too much speed and leave the ball on the wrong side of the slope. McIlroy’s pre-tournament comment was essentially a warning: the bump-and-run into the slope is less reliable than usual this week.
You’ll see attempts at this shot at holes 11, 15, and 16. Watch how many misread it and come up short.
The Flop Shot (Steep Descent, Dead Landing)
When the green is soft enough to reject the bump-and-run but the player is still short-sided — meaning there’s almost no green between them and the hole — the only option is to go over the slope entirely. That requires a lob wedge played with a wide-open face, a steep descent angle, and a near-vertical ball flight. The ball doesn’t stop because of spin; it stops because its descent angle is so steep that horizontal momentum is minimal.
This is the shot that looks miraculous on television and destroys amateurs who try it without the right technique. Phil Mickelson built a career on it. At Shinnecock, you’ll see it attempted most often from the banks around hole 7, hole 11, and hole 13 — anywhere the player has less than 10 feet of green to work with and the hole is running away from them.
The Low-Check “Scottie Special”
This is Scottie Scheffler’s signature short-game weapon. Low ball flight, very little loft, the ball comes out with a lot of speed and skids on landing rather than checking immediately. Then, 3 or 4 feet after landing, it grabs the turf and pulls the emergency brake — checking so hard that it almost reverses direction before settling.
The shot requires firm turf to work. On soft greens, the ball doesn’t skid — it digs, checks early, and comes up short. Which is why Scheffler has been working hard in practice rounds to read exactly how firm Shinnecock’s putting surfaces will be by Thursday. His ability to deploy this shot under pressure is one of the reasons he’s the betting favorite this week.
The Medium Obstacle Chip
You’re not short-sided. You’ve got green to work with. But between you and the hole, there’s a ridge, a tier change, or a false front that you need to carry before the ball can roll out. The play here is a controlled half-swing with a gap wedge — enough loft to clear the obstacle, enough spin to stop the ball after it lands beyond it.
At Shinnecock, this shot appears constantly on holes 4, 5, and 8, where multi-tiered greens create internal obstacles on virtually every pin position. Players who try to run the ball through the tiers instead of over them either come up short or watch the ball kick hard off the ridge and end up on the wrong level.
The Downwind Escape Chip
No competitor has mentioned this shot. It’s unique to Shinnecock and links golf, and you’ll miss it if you don’t know what you’re watching.
When the wind is behind you and the ball is already below the hole, you’re chipping with the ball moving downwind onto a surface that’s already tilted away from you. Normal pace becomes double pace. A chip that would stop at the flag in calm conditions will run 15 feet past. Players compensate by going high — very high, almost a flop shot trajectory — to bleed off speed through flight time, landing the ball shorter than you’d expect and letting it trickle the rest of the way. The goal is to arrive at the hole with almost no pace left. One mph too fast and the ball runs through the green onto that shaved bank.
You’ll see this shot — and the disasters when it goes wrong — on holes 10, 16, and 17, particularly on Sunday when nerves add half a swing’s worth of speed to every strike.
Holes Where the Chip Shot Decides Your Score
Not every hole at Shinnecock punishes short game misses equally. Three holes, specifically, will produce the most dramatic chip shot moments of the week. For more on the architectural history behind these holes, our Shinnecock Hills architectural breakdown covers the William Flynn redesign in full.
Hole 10: The Cruelest Architecture in US Open Golf
Hole 10 is the purest expression of Shinnecock’s short game philosophy: the architecture makes getting the ball to stop harder than getting it there. The tee shot plays to a plateau at 255 yards, leaving a short approach to a green that drops off dramatically both short and long. Approach shots landing from 20 feet below the putting surface arrive on a flattened trajectory — effectively losing 15 to 20 feet of peak height — and run through the back at speed.
From behind the green, players face a chip back up the front slope with the flag running away from them. Many attempts roll down the front of the crown, off the putting surface, back down the fairway, and all the way to the bottom of the hill — 75 yards from where they started. Scheffler’s caddie was spotted throwing a water bottle 30 feet into the air during practice rounds to gauge wind direction at green level. That’s how seriously the tour is taking this hole’s complexity.
The correct play is a steep descent flop shot that lands well short of the back edge, or a high obstacle chip with enough backspin to stop before cresting the ridge. Both require perfect execution. You’ll see at least a few players get this exactly wrong.
Hole 11: Uphill, Downwind, Impossible
The par-3 11th plays uphill 40 feet to a small green, wind hurting from the left. A miss long and left runs down a shaved bank leaving an almost impossible chip back up to a green running away from you — downwind. This is the downwind escape chip in its most extreme form. From this position, the only shot that works is a high lob that lands on the front edge of the green and barely releases. Anything short stays on the bank. Anything long runs into the collection area beyond the back.
The USGA is planning to set this hole anywhere from 110 to 155 yards depending on the day. The shorter yardages actually play harder — shorter club, less spin, less ability to control distance on an uphill wedge shot to a firm green.
Hole 7: The Tilted Green That Rejects Everything
The 7th hole’s green has a severe front-right-to-back-left tilt that’s been notorious since the C.B. Macdonald era. In the 2004 US Open, play had to be halted because balls were rolling freely on their own due to green speeds that made it impossible to hold any surface. The USGA has vowed not to repeat 2004, and the Stimpmeter target of 11.5–12 is partly designed to keep the 7th playable.
Even at those speeds, any chip shot hit with too much pace on this green runs sideways off the tilt and exits the putting surface entirely. The only reliable chip from the banks around 7 is a high-landing flop shot placed precisely onto the flattest section of the green, with just enough pace to reach the hole before the tilt grabs it. Short-sided on 7 is one of the worst positions in major championship golf.
What Wind Does to Every Single Chip Decision at Shinnecock
Most golfers think about wind for full shots. Tour pros think about wind for everything, including 10-yard chips.
A downwind chip at Shinnecock doesn’t roll out 20% more than normal. Depending on the gust timing, it rolls out twice as far. The ground is firm and fast, which means wind-added pace has nowhere to be absorbed. A shot that fits the hole into a headwind becomes an impossible over-the-green disaster in a tailwind, using the exact same technique.
Here’s how wind reshapes every chip decision this week. Into the wind: pros use less loft, more run, bump-and-run options are safe because the wind kills pace. Crosswind from the left: the bump into the slope works if it’s the left bank; the flop is dangerous because the ball drifts right on descent. Downwind: flop shots become mandatory because rolling options build too much speed; the landing zone needs to be short of where you’d normally aim.
Viktor Hovland addressed this directly in his practice round preparation. He walked the front nine with only a putter and two wedges, hitting chip shots from every bank and run-off around every green. That’s not normal pre-tournament work. It tells you exactly how much the short game decisions are going to separate the field at Shinnecock this week. Hovland won his first major at Augusta, a course where putting is the separator. Shinnecock separates players around the greens, and he knows it.
3 Things You Can Steal From What You Watch This Week
This is where Shinnecock coverage becomes genuinely useful for your own game. The pros aren’t doing magic. They’re applying principles that work on any firm, fast course — and watching them under US Open pressure is the clearest teaching tool you’ll find.
1. Choose your landing zone first, then your club. Every chip shot you see at Shinnecock this week starts with the player picking a spot, not a swing. The club choice follows from the landing zone. If you watch closely during broadcasts, you’ll see players pointing their club at a specific piece of ground before they set up. That’s the landing spot. Match the loft to that spot — not to the hole. Starting with the landing zone forces you to commit to one decision instead of making two simultaneously.
2. Stay quiet through the chip on firm ground. On soft courses, hand action through the chip adds spin that helps stop the ball. On firm ground — and on any course that approaches Shinnecock’s firmness — hand action adds unpredictable spin that creates bad bounces. The pros chipping at Shinnecock this week are moving their body through the shot, not flipping their hands. Shoulder rotation does the work. Watch Scheffler especially — his body moves through the chip and his hands never release past his front leg. Try that the next time you play a links-style course or a summer round on a sun-baked parkland.
3. The wind is part of your chipping math. Most amateur golfers don’t adjust their chip distance for wind. Most pros always do. If you’re playing in any wind over 15 mph, the wind affects your chip the moment the ball is airborne. Add 20–30% to your landing zone distance in a headwind; subtract 20–30% in a tailwind. The flatter your trajectory (bump and run), the less wind affects you. The higher your trajectory (flop or lob), the more. Choosing a lower trajectory in wind isn’t just a links golf preference — it’s a calculation that applies every time you pick up a wedge.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you chip on links-style courses?
On links-style courses like Shinnecock Hills, use lower-trajectory shots whenever possible — bump and runs into slopes, high handle chips that roll out on the green, and medium obstacle chips with a gap wedge. Reserve lob shots for short-sided situations where you have no room and no alternative. Wind and firm turf punish high-trajectory chips by adding unpredictable pace to landing; low shots keep the ball closer to the ground where wind has less effect. The single most important adjustment is picking your landing zone before choosing your club, not after.
What makes Shinnecock Hills so hard to chip around?
Three things make Shinnecock’s chipping uniquely difficult: shaved run-offs around every green that don’t stop the ball, firm sandy soil that gives chips one or two bounces then releases hard, and constant wind off the Atlantic that changes every speed calculation. The greens are also tilted and pushed up above the surroundings in multiple locations, meaning short-sided misses leave uphill chips to a surface running away from you. On almost every other US Open course, thick rough around the greens catches misses. At Shinnecock, nothing catches anything.
How do pros stop the ball on fast greens?
Pros stop the ball on fast greens using two methods: steep descent and spin. A lob wedge played with an open face and steep swing path creates a ball that arrives nearly vertically, so horizontal momentum is minimal — the ball stops because it’s coming down, not because it’s spinning back. The second method — heavy spin from a square face — requires a firm, tight lie to work. On soft greens (like Shinnecock this week at 11.5–12 Stimpmeter), heavy spin is unreliable because the ball plugs slightly on landing and the spin can’t engage cleanly. That’s why you’ll see more high-trajectory lobs than running bump-and-run chips during this tournament.
What is a bump and run chip shot?
The bump and run is a low-trajectory chip where the ball lands short of the green and runs the majority of its total distance on the ground. Players use a 7-iron, 8-iron, or gap wedge with a putting-style stroke — hands forward, quiet wrists, ball position back in the stance. The ball pitches once or twice just in front of the fringe, then rolls out across the green like a long putt. At Shinnecock, the bump and run works best when the target is an upslope below the green, which kills the ball’s pace before it runs onto the putting surface. On soft greens, the slope absorbs too much speed and leaves the ball short.
What is the difference between a bump and run and a flop shot?
The bump and run keeps the ball low, landing it short of the green and rolling it out. A flop shot launches the ball high, lands it on or very near the target, and stops it quickly through steep descent rather than spin. The bump and run is lower-risk on firm, windy courses — you’re keeping the ball closer to the ground where variables are more predictable. The flop shot is higher-risk and higher-reward — you need perfect technique and the right lie to execute it, but it’s the only option when you’re short-sided with an obstacle between you and the hole. Shinnecock demands both shots from every player in the field this week.
The Bottom Line
Shinnecock Hills has never been kind to weak short games — five US Opens have proven that, with only three players finishing under par across the last four championships at this course. The 2026 edition is going to demand everything from the field’s chipping ability, and the slower green speeds this week paradoxically make the chip decisions more complex, not simpler. Watch for the six specific shots listed here, pay close attention to holes 10, 11, and 7, and notice when wind forces a flop where a bump-and-run would normally be the call. That’s where the tournament separates the contenders from the pretenders. For everything on how the field stacks up entering the week, see our full 2026 US Open predictions at Shinnecock Hills.