SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The U.S. Open teed off Thursday with a fog-delayed first round at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, where the setting is a little quieter than recent editions of the championship.
U.S. Open tickets have not sold out for any round—practice or competition. The USGA made about 21,000 tickets available for purchase per day. If there is a sellout on the weekend, total capacity will be capped at less than 30,000 per day, including volunteers, vendors, and other staffers.
More than 200,000 fans attended the 2024 and 2025 U.S. Opens at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina and Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh, respectively, with crowds of roughly 40,000 fans on peak days. In 2023, daily crowd sizes were around 23,000 fans at Los Angeles Country Club, which did not have the bandwidth for a larger footprint.
Large crowds followed Rory McIlroy’s group in the morning wave and Bryson DeChambeau’s in the afternoon, but many grandstands were less than full throughout the day.
Perhaps the Long Island fans will get rowdier over the weekend, but so far there have been no poor behavior issues like what happened just 60 miles south at Bethpage Black during the Ryder Cup in September.
