U.S. Open checklist: How the best players stand a month out

The 118 U.S. Open is less than a month away and returns to Shinnecock Hills, the fifth U.S. Open to be played at the historic course on Long Island. And it promises to be far different from a year ago at Erin Hills, a long, wide-open venue that produced record scoring.

Shinnecock figures to be a much sterner test, the 7,445-yard, par-70 layout yielding just two sub-par 72-hole scores in 2004, the last time the U.S. Open was staged at the course. Retief Goosen won at 276, 4 under par, and Phil Mickelson at 2 under was the only other player in red numbers.

The two other previous U.S. Opens at Shinnecock in modern times (the first was the second U.S. Open played, in 1896), also meant tough…