The spirits of Shinnecock Hills howl with the wind on the ancient glacial moraine where the white-masted clubhouse perches. Stand here long enough and you may hear the beat of Shinnecock Indian drums, the rumble of stagecoaches and Model T's, the snazzy sounds of Jazz Age clarinets, the clink of ice in cocktail glasses, the thwack of persimmon on gutta percha and the gunshot that killed the famous architect who built that famous clubhouse.
Founded in 1891, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club boasts a list of firsts unrivaled by that of any other club in America. Along with The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Newport (Rhode Island) Country Club, Chicago Golf Club and Saint Andrew's Golf Club at Hastings-on-Hudson, in New York, it was one of the clubs that formed the USGA in 1885. Shinnecock had America's first golf clubhouse (complete with locker room, showers and grill room) and the first 18-hole golf course on the East Coast. It hosted the first U.S. Open to allow African-American and Native-American golfers to compete alongside whites (see "The Shippen News," page 219).
This windswept strand can trace its history beyond the Jazz Age and the previous century to pre-colonial times. The Shinnecock Indians, star-crossed whalers and fearless swimmers, once occupied much of the South Fork of eastern Long Island, east of New York City. In the winter of 1876, the tribe was struck by tragedy when nine Shinnecock braves (and one Montauk Indian brave) drowned in a dramatic attempt to rescue survivors of a cargo ship, the Circassian, which had hit a sandbar off the hamlet of Bridgehampton.
In 1891, publishing magnate Edward S. Mead, who had seen a golf exhibition by Scottish pro Willie Dunn in Biarritz, France, convinced a few of his fellow aristocrats, such as Samuel Parrish and Charles Atterbury, to found Shinnecock Hills. Known as the White Course, the original 12-hole loop straddled the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road. The course was laid out by a Scottish pro named Willie Davis who had come from the Montreal Golf Club. Shinnecock Indians worked as laborers. The following summer, Davis laid out the nine-hole Red Course for women. In the summer of 1893, Dunn himself came to work at the club. He tutored golfers, among them a teenager named Beatrix Hoyt, who went on to win three U.S. Women's Amateur titles before retiring from competitive golf at age 20.
In the meantime, Shinnecock Hills's founders hired the great Stanford White to build a clubhouse. It was finished in June 1892. White, a married man, led a scandalous private life centered around a secret Manhattan apartment adorned with a red velvet swing. Among his many mistresses was Evelyn Nesbit, a 16-year-old chorus girl. Soon after breaking up with White, she married railroad and mining heir Harry Thaw, who flew into a rage upon learning of his young wife's affair with White. On the night of June 25, 1906, Thaw gunned down the "swinging architect" during a musical in Madison Square Garden, a building White had designed.
Later that summer, Shinnecock Hills hired its third Scottish golf pro, 25-year-old Charlie Thom. The "King of Shinnecock," Thom was a feisty, affectionate teacher who reigned for more than half a century, until being succeeded in 1962 by Don McDougal, the current pro. Thom lived on the grounds, in a small cottage near the 14th tee that still doubles as the pro shop, until his death in 1978. The 14th hole is now called "Thom's Elbow."
During Thom's long tenure, the golf course evolved under the watch of three renowned architects. In 1916, the club bought 50 additional acres and commissioned C.B. Macdonald and his protege Seth Raynor to lay out six new holes to replace those that crossed the Long Island Rail Road train tracks; the railroad had demanded that the club post a bond indemnifying it against any injuries to players and others. The 6,108-yard, par-70 Macdonald-Raynor design remained intact until plans for a new highway again forced the club to rebuild. William Flynn was hired to build the present course. Flynn's layout officially opened July 1, 1931, and incorporated Macdonald's original Redan hole, now the par-3 7th, and parts of a par 5 that now form the green complex of today's par-3 2nd.
Shinnecock Indians continued to play key roles in construction and maintenance at Shinnecock Hills. In 1956 Elmer Smith, a Shinnecock whose father had worked on Macdonald's grounds crew, took over as superintendent. Smith died of a heart attack in 1980 and was succeeded by his .son Peter. A Dartmouth College graduate and single-digit-handicapper, Peter Smith helped set up the course for the 1986 and 1995 U.S. Opens.
In the fall of 1999, however, Shinnecock Hills forced out Smith, hired Pebble Beach superintendent Mark Michaud, and spent heavily on new maintenance facilities and equipment. The club's relationship with the Shinnecock tribe ran aground like the Circassian. No Shinnecock Hills members will comment publicly, but it is clear that the greens committee was dissatisfied with Smith's work on the course between U.S. Opens. Smith's supporters say he was hamstrung by a low budget and possibly hurt by racial discrimination. After hooking on as superintendent of the Foxwoods Golf and Country Club in Rhode Island, Smith died of a heart attack at age 47.
Today there are about 600 members of the Shinnecock tribe living on a reservation less than a mile from Shinnecock Hills. A few still work at the club -- several are caddies -- but some Shinnecocks are angry. Politically charged animosity resurfaced last year when the USGA decided to relocate U.S. Open parking areas from Shinnecock land to privately owned farmland, costing the tribe tens of thousands of dollars. Don't be surprised if you hear cries of protest behind the sounds of cheering galleries at this year's Open.
