Last time Shinnecock Hills hosted a major in 2018, the first-round scoring was barely 76.5. Rory McIlroy himself shot an 80 and missed the cut. The course returns to the calendar this June, and ahead of the buildup, McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler made an early detour in Southampton, New York. And both walked away with the same conclusion.

“The fairways are very generous,” McIlroy said of his scouting trip, where he played 18 holes. “They’re more generous than they were in 2018.” He then pointed to the greens as being the real test.

“The greens are rolling around 11, 11.2, something like that,” added McIlroy. “And I really don’t think they need to get much faster. So to me, it’s all about them just maintaining the green speeds really, where they are and not getting them too out of hand.”

“But the fairways are generous enough to where it provides you some opportunity, and that way it’s just that the green complexes are extraordinarily difficult, and so they can put the pins wherever they want and make the scores as high as they could possibly want ’em to be,” Scheffler echoed the same.

These early warning signs come in the wake of deliberate changes made by the USGA this year. The last two times the course hosted the U.S. Open, in 2004 and 2018, the setup went too far. In 2004, fairways averaged 26 yards wide with brutally thick roughs. In fact, greens had to be watered between groups to keep the play going. Later in 2018, the USGA tried to correct the setup by widening the fairways; however, it ended up folding them back in before tournament week.

This time, however, the message from the officials is one of restraint. Superintendent Jon Jennings confirmed there are no major changes to the layout.

“There are no changes to the course whatsoever. It will play true to its design.” The fairways average 48 yards wide, and these changes come in to make the game fairer. But both McIlroy and Scheffler made clear that wider fairways do not necessarily mean easier scoring.

Shinnecock’s greens are not just fast but also shaped in a way that punishes anything less than a perfect shot. Their green complexes have roll-off edges and closely mown surrounds where a shot one yard from perfect can tumble 30 yards away. The slopes also run in multiple directions. So when pin positions are near those edges, and green speeds climb, leaving almost no margin.

So, according to Scheffler, wider fairways could also mean wider pin locations, making it even tougher for players. In fact, just three weeks ago at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, he called some pin positions “absurd.” He said that it was the most difficult he had ever seen in seven years on Tour.

“I think if they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens,” McIlroy added.

Also, as McIlroy highlighted, the greens are currently at 11 to 11.2, and tampering with them further could make the course unplayable. For context, last year at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, it ran between 13 and 14. Anything above 12 is considered fast. With nearly two weeks of Long Island sunshine still to come, the surfaces are likely to firm up naturally. On top of that, aggressive pin locations on Shinnecock’s severe slopes could once again push the course to the edge.

The stakes are equally high for Scottie Scheffler: the U.S. Open is the only major he has not won. He has won the Masters twice, the PGA Championship, and the Open Championship. A win at Shinnecock would make him the seventh player in history to complete the Career Grand Slam.

McIlroy backs PGA Tour restructuring ahead of Shinnecock

Alongside his thoughts on the course, McIlroy spoke about the PGA Tour’s ongoing restructuring at the Memorial press conference. He and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp had spoken earlier that day, walking the course together.

The Tour is currently moving towards a two-track model, with roughly 16 elite events for top performers with 36-hole cuts restored and a track two for players working their way up. Rolapp confirmed the changes recently, but they are not likely to be implemented before 2028.

McIlroy has been active in boardroom conversations and believes these changes are for the better.

“I think it’s all heading in the right direction. Expanding the field, bringing cuts back in. If you have a Tour card, it should mean something. You should know where you are playing and what events you’re getting into,” he said at the Memorial Tournament press conference.

The new structure is also directly performance-based, meaning players earn and keep their place at the top through results. McIlroy acknowledged the trade-off that comes with it.

“Does it mean it makes it harder for myself to win the FedEx Cup? Absolutely,” he said. “But I’m OK with that because it brings balance to my life and lets me enjoy things outside of the game.”

For now, his focus is back on the course, and Shinnecock Hills is just two weeks away.