Shinnecock Hills was the winner of the US Open yet again

I told you that the Shinnecock Hills course would be the main talking point at this year’s US Open and guess what? I was right.

But this time, the players had plenty to say before a ball was even hit in anger.

Mindful of the farcical conditions on the greens when the tournament was last played here in 2018, many of them weighed in with their views early in the week. They clearly did not want to be made to look stupid.

This is what Rory McIlroy had to say: "They're just going to have to be wary of not getting the greens too fast. There is expected to be a pretty heavy wind for a couple of days, so it's about making sure it doesn't get out of control.

"There were gusts of 25 to 30mph on Monday, and balls wouldn't stay on the 11th green. That's where you just have to use a little bit of caution."

McIlroy said the organisers need to "protect the competitive integrity of the tournament and make it fair for everyone".

"The greens are pretty big but the area you have to hit into is quite small," he said. "The greens are difficult and I think you have to have a lot of patience, not going at flags and being OK with hitting it to 30 feet every time. 

"You might hole a couple of those and it's a bonus, but you look at the scores here at the last few US Opens and it's all around even par, no-one is really going to get away."

And when the action got under way, it all became too much for Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who became the first golfer penalised for breaking the new code of conduct introduced for major championships in 2026. 

He was given a two-shot penalty by US Open officials shortly after completing a fog-delayed first round. 

The 27-year-old was punished for "serious misconduct" after throwing his sand wedge in frustration on the sixth hole after he twice hit tee shots out of bounds and then had an awkward lie. 

It meant his nine was increased to an 11 on the par-four and he eventually signed for an eight-over 78 before responding with a five-under 65 in the second round - something for which he deserves huge credit.

"I finished my round, signed my scorecard, and then a referee came up to me and said 'I need to talk to you'," Niemann said. "They considered with the whole committee that it was a right decision to give me a two-shot penalty. 

"I was trying to argue back but it's their decision and I feel like I wouldn't be happy seeing players throwing clubs and behaving that way so, yeah, I agree."

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Niemann. This sort of behaviour is unacceptable and anything that can be done to stamp it out is to be applauded.

While all of this was going on, former champion Wyndham Clark was making serene progress, reaching a hugely impressive seven under par after 36 holes, one of just 10 players to finish under par at the halfway mark. He led by four and the question was: how would the USGA react because everybody knows that they do not like to see players making their courses look easy.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out. Dylan Wu, who made the cut on the number at four over, FIVE-putted his very first hole. The greens were up to their old tricks again and the result was carnage. Russell Henley took 80 blows, Hideki Matsuyama 77.

By the end of the third round there were just five players under par and only two sub-par scores were recorded all day - by Emiliano Grillo and world number one Scottie Scheffler, and Clark, with a 70, was six shots ahead. He had scrambled brilliantly to keep his score together and now it was his to lose.

It was all a far cry from Oakmont 12 months when, in a fit of temper, he took out his frustrations on the locker-room and was banned from the club.

He had looked in control of his game all week but now he began to stutter and by the time he walked off the fifth he had dropped two shots and, incredibly, led Sam Burns by a solitary shot.

The course was playing easier than it had all week - for almost everybody other than Clark. The last man to lose a six-shot 54-hole lead in a major was Greg Norman at The Masters in 1996. History couldn’t repeat itself, could it?

Burns would eventually finish with a 67 and a three-under-par total, one behind Clark, who still had three holes to play. It turned out Clark is made of strong stuff - a birdie at the 16th extended his lead to two. But then a shot went at the 17th and we have a dramatic finish. Could he par the last? He did, to become a two-time major winner.

Clark may be US Open champion but the course was the real winner. Just three men finished the week on the right side of par.