If you've watched any of the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills this week, you've likely noticed there are few trees on the property. In fact, there is only one tree in the section of course that contains the 10th through 13th holes: a lonely pine that sits to the players' left of the 13th green. The lack of trees not only makes for amazing images, it takes a lot of stress out of flying a drone there.
Last October, Golf Digest Senior Staff Photographer Dom Furore and I had the pleasure of spending a perfect fall day at Shinnecock. Dom's assignment was to capture photographs for Golf Digest's U.S. Open preview issue, and mine was to film the course with a drone. Drones have changed the way we capture golf-course images. These amazing pieces of flying technology allow us position cameras at elevations and angles that previously weren't possible.
I had been to Shinnecock before but spent the week leading into shoot day studying the course, plotting flight rou..

U.S. Open 2018: Is Shinnecock Hills a tougher test of golf than Oakmont? One U.S. Open participant tells us

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y.—The U.S. Open television experience on FOX Sports has been night and day since the network's infamous debut at Chambers Bay in 2015. This, however, will not make the championship's highlight reel.
During Friday's live coverage from Shinnecock Hills, cameras were closing in on Patrick Reed at the first hole, as announcer Joe Buck set up the shot. It's then that a vulgar conversation found its way onto live television. (Warning: The following is of sexual nature.)
Guy 1: “That’s my ex.”
Guy 2: “Yeah, she’s hot.”
Guy 1: “That’s when we were f***** so hard, and I headbutted her in the head.”*
Guy 2: “Sure.”
Guy 1: “And I smacked that b*** down.”*
Guy 2: “Yeah, what actually happened, pal?”
Guy 2: “No, straight up. We kind of went in the [indistinct] position, and I was laying down…”
“Today, during the live FS1 broadcast of the 2018 U.S. Open, one of the many microphones on the course inadvertently picked up some offensive crowd chatter,” Fox Sports spo..

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) A look at the key hole in the second round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Hole: 8

Par: 4

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Yardage: 448

Stroke Average: 4.1

Rank: 9

Ian Poulter was within a shot of the lead playing his 17th hole of the day when he made a triple bogey. His 7 on the hole left Dustin Johnson with a four-shot lead midway through the Open.

A glance at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York.

Leading: Dustin Johnson at 4-under 136 after a second-round 67.

Just behind: Scott Piercy and Charley Hoffman are four shots back at even-par 140.

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Where’s Tiger: Gone, after shooting 10 over for two rounds and missing the cut.

Missing out: Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth also missed the cut.

Notable: Six other players have led by four shots or more going into the weekend of the U.S. Open.

Key stat: Players have made triple bogey or worse on all but six holes at Shinnecock Hills.

Quotable: ”Maybe it makes a few people happy out there that, you know, we kind of mess up just as good as everyone else. We’re human, right? We make a mistake.” – Ian Poulter, discussing the triple bogey that left Dustin Johnson as the only player under par.

Featured tee times: Rickie Fowler, Russell Henley, 2:26 p.m. EDT; Scott Piercy, Dustin Johnson, 3:10 p.m.

TV: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Fox.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) The Massachusetts birthplace of boxing champions Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler will have another favorite son to root for this weekend.

Brockton firefighter and Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale made the cut at the U.S. Open on Friday, the first Mid-Am to survive the first two rounds since 2003. So while big names like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will be going home, Parziale will be at Shinnecock Hills on Father’s Day with his dad, Vic, as his caddie.

”I don’t know why you wouldn’t dream and try to do the best you can,” said Parziale, who also earned an invitation to the Masters with his Mid-Am victory but missed the cut.

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”Anything is possible,” he said. ”It’s been up and down, but I’ve always enjoyed trying to get better.”

Parziale was one of three amateurs to make the cut, which was at 148, or 8 over.

Will Grimmer was the low amateur through 36 holes at 5 over, and Luis Gagne was 6 over. Parziale had to sweat it out after ..

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) The shadows were lengthening, the crowds thinning in the early evening at the U.S. Open. Shinnecock Hills itself was changing, morphing from a tortuous test of patience into a place where birdies were not only available but plentiful.

Dustin Johnson might have been off having a cold one somewhere, his place on top of the leaderboard secure. Tiger Woods was on his yacht heading home, his place in golf no longer so secure.

And three of the biggest names in the sport were playing together on their way to the clubhouse, united in a desperate attempt not to win but to find a way to play on the weekend.

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High drama on a Friday, with nothing at stake but a Saturday tee time.

Phil Mickelson managed to get one, playing the final nine in 33 to keep his slim Open hopes alive. Rory McIlroy didn’t, despite shooting 31 on the same back nine where he shot 42 a day earlier.

And then there was Jordan Spieth, who could only stand by the 18th green ..

FacebookPinterestAl Messerschmidt(Photo by A. Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

Who doesn’t enjoy a good PGA Tour gambling story, including those who participated in them? We were reminded of this when Phil Mickelson birdied the fifth hole in the second round of the U.S. Open on Friday and Fox Sports’ Paul Azinger noted it was only his second birdie of the championship.
“Which is just hard to believe,” Azinger said. “He was a birdie machine. Don’t bump into Phil on a Tuesday or he’ll fleece you.”
Tuesdays are for practice rounds, which often include friendly, and occasionally expensive, wagers. Azinger’s comment brought to mind a story Mickelson once gleefully told me about how he was the one who was fleeced (though no money changed hands) and the man doing the fleecing was Azinger.
It happened in a practice round prior to the Tour Championship at the Olympic Club in 1993. The two were engaged in a game of Hammer and they were playing for $25 hammers, according to Mickelson.
Basically, ieac..

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) The U.S. Open cut sliced off some huge names.

There won’t be an inspiring weekend return to the tournament for Tiger Woods, nor a fifth major championship for Rory McIlroy.

Jordan Spieth won’t get his fourth major, Martin Kaymer never contended for a third and Jason Day is going home without his second. Same deal for some other owners of one major title: Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley.

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Four players ranked in the top 10 in the world won’t be around come Saturday, missing the cut of 8-over 148: No. 4 Spieth, No. 5 Jon Rahm, No. 6 McIlroy and No. 8 Day.

Shinnecock Hills beat them all.

Failure to advance might have been most painful for Spieth, who rallied from a first-round 78 with four straight birdies on his back nine, then bogeyed his final two holes to wind up at 9 over – and done.

Aside from his 2015 win in this event, Spieth has a spotty record. He finished 37th and 35th in the last two U.S. Opens.

Woods, who m..

Dustin Johnson holds the lead at the U.S. Open and Tiger Woods misses the cut. Holly Sonders with today's #Lexus Performance Update.