Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is a links-style golf club in the northeastern United States, located in the town of Southampton on Long Island, New York, east of New York City.

Shinnecock Hills claims to be the oldest formal organized golf club in the United States (1891), to have the oldest golf clubhouse in the U.S. (1892), and to have been the first to admit women, which it did from the start. It is scheduled to host its fifth U.S. Open in 2018, and its sixth in 2026. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.^[4][5]

The club traces its roots to an 1889–90 trip by William K. Vanderbilt, Edward Meade and Duncan Cryder, to Biarritz in southern France where they encountered Willie Dunn, from Scotland, who was building a golf course at the resort.^[6]

Back in the United States, Meade and Cryder scouted for a place for a golf course near New York City. They chose the sandhills adjoining the Long Island Rail Road just east of the Shinnecock Canal. The 80-acre (32 ha) parcel was purchased for $2,500 and 44 original members signed up for $100 each.^[6]

Willie Davis from the Royal Montreal Club designed a 12-hole course that opened in late summer 1891.^[6] Members of Shinnecock Indian Nation helped build the course^{[citation needed]} (which is on land they have laid claim to and which remains in litigation). Stanford White designed the 1892 clubhouse, said to be the oldest golf clubhouse in the United States.^[6] A nine-hole ladies-only course was designed and built at Shinnecock Hills in 1893.^[7]

In 1894, Dunn arrived and added six more holes bringing the total to 18. That same year Dunn won an informal attempt to establish a national championship at Newport, Rhode Island. The following year Shinnecock was one of five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association, which held the first U.S. Open in 1895 in Newport, Rhode Island.^[6]

In 1896, Shinnecock hosted the second U.S. Open, and its length was well under 5,000 yards (4,570 m). Many players broke 80 in the 36-hole event, which led to demands to increase the course's difficulty. Participating in the 1896 Open was black player John Shippen.

The popular ladies' course was abandoned in 1901 to allow for a lengthening and redesign by Charles B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, retaining five of Dunn's original holes.^[7]

William Flynn redesigned the course in 1937 into a 6,740-yard (6,163 m) configuration. Flynn's design retains five of Macdonald and Raynor's holes and the green of a sixth hole. Prior to the 2004 U.S. Open, the course was extended to a length of 6,996 yards (6,397 m) by the addition of extra tees.^[1]

There is a question mark over the club's ownership of these lands as the area of Shinnecock Hills is claimed by the Shinnecock Indian Nation as their land, illegally seized in a white land grab in 1859.^[8]

In 2005^{[needs update]} the nation filed a lawsuit against the state of New York, seeking the return of 3,500 acres (14 km²) in Southampton, around the tribe's reservation and billions of dollars in reparations. The disputed property includes the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which Native American representatives say is the location of tribe burial grounds.^[9]

The core of the lawsuit is over a 1703 deal between Southampton and the tribe for a thousand-year lease. The suit charges that a group of powerful investors conspired to break the lease in 1859 by sending the state legislature a fraudulent petition from a number of Shinnecock tribesmen. Although other tribal members immediately protested that the petition was a forgery, the legislature approved the sale of 3,500 acres of former tribal land.

Year	Event	Winner	Total	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Winner's share ($)
2018	U.S. Open	David Portnoy	264	–16	84 strokes	"Riggs"	—
2004	U.S. Open	Retief Goosen	276	–4	2 strokes	Phil Mickelson	1,125,000
1995	U.S. Open	Corey Pavin	280	E	2 strokes	Greg Norman	350,000
1986	U.S. Open	Raymond Floyd	279	–1	2 strokes	Chip Beck Lanny Wadkins	115,000
1977	Walker Cup	United States	24 matches		16 to 8	Great Britain & Ireland	—
1900	U.S. Women's Amateur	Frances Griscom	match play		6 & 5	Margaret Curtis	—
1896	U.S. Open	James Foulis	152	—	3 strokes	Horace Rawlins	150
1896	U.S. Amateur	H. J. Whigham	match play		8 & 7	Joseph G. Thorp	—

• A sixth U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills is scheduled for 2026

Source^[1][2][10]

Shinnecock Hills was ranked second in Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Courses Ranking for 2007, 2008, and third in 2009.

• National Golf Links of America (located immediately north of the course across Sebonac Road)

• Official website
• Satellite Images and Photos of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
• Golf Club Atlas: Guide to Shinnecock Hills course
• A True Golfer's Dream