Rory McIlroy changes tune after thinking US Open intervention was 'stupid'

He’s changed his tune, though, after coming to terms with the fact that, as the person who asked him about it in a pre-event press conference at the Long Island venue on Tuesday subsequently put it to this correspondent, “it is part of daily life here” rather than a reactionary measure.

Every day at 2pm at Shinnecock Hills when the members are playing the course, the greenkeepers put water on it to a) protect it in dry and hot conditions and b) keep it playable.

For its sixth US Open, it is looking absolutely sensational but dry at the same time, to the extent that the areas not being watered are more like what you’d expect to see at The Open during a dry summer in the UK or Ireland.

It would be a first in major golf if a call was made beforehand to introduce what could be described as a small “water break”, but, with windy conditions likely on Thursday, in particular, it could well be on the cards here.

“Look, it's a unique golf course,” declared McIlroy, the 2011 winner, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday morning. “The members at Shinnecock will tell you they do that every single day. Every single day at this course the members play, they put water on the course at 2:00 p.m.

“So it's a unique golf course, and it seems like it's just something they have to do. My concern was you don't want to look as if you've lost the golf course and you're starting to put water on it, which is I don't think what they're going to do.

“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. Then I think they've got enough bandwidth on the weekend that they probably don't need to do it, so I understand it.

“I think, when I first heard of it, my first reaction was, that's stupid, why are they doing that? Then, once you actually listen and you've let them break it down to you, you're, like, yeah, that makes sense.”

Just three players have shot par or better in four US Opens at Long Island venue

Shared by Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy in the build up to the season’s third major, a statistic about how only three players - Ray Floyd won on -1 in 1985 while 2004 winner Retief Goosen and runner-up Phil Mickelson posted -4 and -2 respectively - have finished at level par or better out of the 520 who have teed up here in four US Opens in the last 100 years has proved a big talking point and no wonder.

Factor in Mickelson losing the plot in 2018, when he intentionally hit his moving ball to deliberately stop it from rolling off a green, earning him a two-shot penalty in the third round, and it’s no surprise that there’s a distinct feeling of nervousness about what might be in store if it does blow up to 30mph on Thursday then Saturday as well.

“We've seen what's happened here the last two US Opens,” observed McIlroy, who was derailed by an opening 80 - tying his career-worst major round score to par - in 2018 and missed a third successive in the event. “It doesn't need to get that fast to play incredibly difficult and challenging.

“I'd say the greens yesterday probably averaged about 11-and-a-half (on the stimpmeter). They certainly don't need to be any faster than that. I think with the wind they're expecting on Thursday, I'd say it seems they'd want to get the greens back to the 10s. 10.5, something like that, just because of how heavy the wind is going to be, gusts of 35 to 40 miles an hour.

“There were only gusts of 25 to 30 yesterday, and balls wouldn't stand on the 11th green. That's where you just have to use a little bit of caution. Thursday and Friday are difficult because there's two waves, and you want to try to protect the competitive integrity of the tournament and try to make it somewhat fair for everyone. Obviously it's an outdoor sport, and you can't control everything.

“But I think on the weekend - say 10am is the first starting time - at least they have time if they need to put a lot of water on the golf course early, and then they let it sort of naturally dry out as the day goes on. I think Thursday/Friday, they're just going to have to manage a little bit better.”

For the first time in golf’s modern era, the opening two majors in a season fell to Europeans, with McIlroy successfully defending his Masters title at Augusta National before Aaron Rai landed a spectacular big breakthrough in the PGA Championship at Aronimink. Could a so-called three-peat and even a grand slam be on the cards?

Course is more a ‘UK/European-style test’

“Yeah, there's a lot of talented golfers coming out of Europe and out of the UK,” said McIlroy, smiling. “Aaron has definitely, like, forged his own path and done it his own way. It was amazing to see him do what he did at Aronimink.

“Obviously for European golfers, the majority of our golf is in the United States, three of the four major championships are here. I think just over time we've got a lot more comfortable with the style of golf that you need to play and the setups around here.

“So, yeah, obviously a historic start to the major season for golfers from that part of the world, and I would say this is more a UK/European style of test than certainly the first two majors at Augusta and Aronimink. So it certainly wouldn't surprise me to see a few players from Europe and the UK in contention on Sunday.”