For the first time since Retief Goosen won a championship dominated by talk of unfair course conditions, Shinnecock Hills has been awarded another U.S. Open.
The course on Long Island will host its fifth U.S. Open in 2018, the United States Golf Association announced Wednesday.
"We are thrilled that our national championship will return to one of our country's most storied venues," USGA President Jim Hyler said. "We are confident that Shinnecock Hills will provide a true challenge for the world's premier players, as it has for more than a century."
That was never more true than in '04, when officials took to watering the green at No. 7 in between groups because the surface had become impossibly fast.
The wind came up and the green at the par-three hole -- which had been accidentally rolled before Saturday's round -- dried out. The first four golfers to play the hole on Sunday made three triple-bogeys and a bogey before the USGA decided to water it.
The move drew heavy criticism, including some from players, because it meant that not everyone played the same course that day.
Goosen shot a one-over 71 in the final round and beat Phil Mickelson by two shots at four-under 276. It was the third of Mickelson's U.S. Open-record five runner-up finishes without a victory. Goosen had also won the Open three years earlier at Southern Hills.
Shinnecock hosted the second U.S. Open in 1896, when Horace Rawlins won, but didn't get the championship again until 1986 when Raymond Floyd captured the title. Corey Pavin won there in 1995.
This year's U.S. Open starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda.
For more on golf and the 2011 U.S. Open, head over the SB Nation's golf blog Waggle Room.
