The U.S. Open may be golf’s third major of the year, but as 156 players descend on Shinnecock Hills on Long Island to tee off on Thursday, it could be lucky No. 4 for Scottie Scheffler. A victory on Sunday would give the world’s top-ranked golfer titles at all four majors, completing his career Grand Slam—a fitting present for his 30th birthday.
Of course, Scheffler and his rivals are shooting for more than just glory. There is also a hefty winner’s check at stake (worth $4.3 million last year).
Here are 18 more numbers to know about the 2026 U.S. Open—one for each hole.
The U.S. Golf Association, the organizer of the Open, has not yet revealed this year’s purse, but the event has had the largest prize pot among the majors since 2017. (This year’s Masters had total prize money of $22.5 million, and the PGA Championship paid out $20.5 million. The British Open, which will be held in July, has not yet announced its purse.) The U.S. Open’s prize money total should also exceed the $20 million on offer at the PGA Tour’s eight limited-field “signature events” this season, although it will likely trail the combined $30 million purse (for the individual and team competitions) at LIV Golf’s regular-season events—assuming the tour makes it through the year.
Even adjusting for inflation—with the value of the original award rising to about $6,000 in today’s dollars—it’s a more than 70,000% increase.
Parking is an additional $84 a day. Ticket prices extend all the way to $6,875 each (resale) for a spot on Thursday in the 1895 Club, which comes with access to a VIP entrance, an air-conditioned lounge overlooking the 17th hole, private restrooms, all-inclusive food and drinks, and a golf cart shuttle service around the course.
The total is sandwiched in the middle of this year’s majors, with the Masters playing at 7,565 yards, the PGA Championship at 7,394 and the British Open at 7,156. The longest hole this year is the par-5 No. 16, at 614 yards, with 20 bunkers scattered along the way.
The hole, commonly known as Hill Head and sometimes as “America’s shortest par-5,” proves distance isn’t everything. Why is it so difficult? The green is surrounded by bunkers and is 50 feet uphill, with only the front edge visible from the tee, meaning that not only do golfers have to be precise with their drives, they also don’t know the outcome of their shot until they ascend the green.
Shinnecock, founded in 1891, is the oldest incorporated golf club in the United States and was one of the five founding member clubs of the U.S. Golf Association. The course in Southampton, about 90 miles east of Manhattan, has barely changed its layout since 1931 and is hosting its sixth U.S. Open, with a seventh scheduled there for 2036; only Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, with ten, and Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, with seven, have hosted more Opens to date. (Shinnecock is, however, the only course to have hosted the U.S. Open in each of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.) Shinnecock was also the site of one of the most famous shots in golf history—Corey Pavin’s approach shot on No. 18 that effectively won him the 1995 U.S. Open after a final-round collapse by Greg Norman—and reportedly charges around $250,000 for membership initiation fees.
Brooks Koepka shot a 281 to capture the 2018 title, holding off Tommy Fleetwood at +2. No matter where it is played, the U.S. Open is known for tight scoring around par, with ankle-high rough that punishes errant drives. Across the four previous Opens played at Shinnecock with modern scoring rules—excluding the 1896 tournament, where rounds weren’t scored relative to par—only one golfer has finished under par without winning: Phil Mickelson, who was two under in 2004 but ended up two strokes behind Retief Goosen.
Scheffler’s odds are just a bit longer at FanDuel, at +550, either way making him the heavy favorite over Rory McIlroy (+940 at DraftKings or +1200 at FanDuel) and Jon Rahm (+1175 or +1300). The tournament’s defending champion, J.J. Spaun, is listed at +5900 at DraftKings and at +5500 at FanDuel.
With a victory this weekend, Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship and British Open in 2025 and the Masters in 2022 and 2024, would become the seventh member of the exclusive club—with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, if you’re scoring at home. Scheffler tied for second at the 2022 U.S. Open outside Boston. Phil Mickelson is also just a U.S. Open victory short of a career Grand Slam, after six runner-up finishes at the event, but he will not compete this year.
The total is down slightly from 2025’s 14 as the tour faces an uncertain future. Jon Rahm is the highest-paid of the group, having earned an estimated $111 million over the past 12 months before taxes and agent fees to lead all golfers.
The 45-year-old Australian, who won the 2013 Masters for his lone major title, has appeared at every Grand Slam tournament since the 2001 British Open. Only Jack Nicklaus, who played 146 straight majors from 1962 to 1998, has ever had a longer streak. Among active players, Jordan Spieth is on the next-longest run, making his 53rd appearance in a row this week.
The record for oldest player to win the U.S. Open was set in 1990 by Hale Irwin, who was 45. Besides Harrington, there are three other players at least that old in this year’s field: 45-year-old Adam Scott, 45-year-old Justin Rose and 46-year-old Graeme McDowell.
Jackson Koivun, 21, who helped Auburn claim the NCAA team championship this month, leads the way as the world’s top-ranked amateur, but he announced last week that he will forgo his senior year and turn professional after the Open, making his pro debut in July at the John Deere Classic. Other amateurs competing this year include 17-year-olds Giuseppe Puebla and Miles Russell, the latter of whom qualified for the Open by winning an event in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with Tiger Woods’ son, Charlie, serving as his caddie. The younger Woods won’t be on Russell’s bag at Shinnecock, however, as his swing coach, Ramon Bescansa, takes over the role.
There were 10,201 eligible golfers who submitted entries to the U.S. Golf Association this year—one off 2025’s record.
The agreement, which runs through 2032, keeps the U.S. Open, as well as the U.S. Women’s Open and other USGA-organized championships, on NBC networks, the event’s television home since 2020. The value of the deal was not announced, but Puck reported ahead of the deal that the USGA was expected “to get close to” the $93 million average annual value of a 12-year pact that Fox struck in 2013 before ceding the rights to NBC.
The tournament will be shown across USA Network, NBC, Peacock, NBCSN and Golf Channel. For the second straight year, NBC is using drone tracing technology that tracks the path of tee shots and changes colors based on where the ball is expected to end up. It is also unveiling wind predictor data during the broadcasts on NBC.
In its publicly released annual report, the USGA does not break out the revenue attributable to each tournament it organizes, but an auditor’s report noted that the U.S. Open was responsible for 68% of the organization’s 2024 revenue and 72% of 2023’s.
The list is lacking three-time winner Tiger Woods but includes J.J. Spaun, who, after his 2025 triumph at Oakmont, could become the first back-to-back U.S. Open champion since Brooks Koepka in 2017 and 2018. Koepka himself plans to compete this week and will be joined by another two-time champion, Bryson DeChambeau, although the 32-year-old LIV Golf star is coming off missed cuts at both the Masters and the PGA Championship. “I might miss all four of them in majors this year,” he recently told Flushing It Golf. “That’s just golf.”
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