Brookline will look a little different when The Country Club hosts this year’s U.S. Open

The Country Club will have a slightly new look for the U.S. Open.

The Open returns to Brookline on June 16-19 for the fourth time, but the 140-year-old club outside Boston will have some changes from when Curtis Strange won in 1988.

The USGA said it will play 250 yards longer at 7,264 yards, and it will play to a par 70. It was a par 71 in 1988 and when Julius Boros won in 1963. The Country Club was a par 73 when it first hosted the U.S. Open, won by local amateur Francis Ouimet in 1913.

The course used for major tournaments, including the 1999 Ryder Cup, is a composite of the one played by members and a third nine.

This year’s championship course will add the 11th hole from the main course, a par 3 at 131 yards, and lose No. 4. The 10th hole has been shortened from a 515-yard par 5 to a 499-yard par 4. The 14th, previously 450 yards, is now 619 yards as a par 5.

“The Country Club is an old-school golf course: small greens, very tight fairways,” said Jeff Hall, the USGA’s managing director of rules and open championships. “How is this modern golfer going to adapt, or are they just going to let it rip?”

Another change: The previous three Opens at Brookline have gone to an 18-hole playoff. The USGA now has a two-hole aggregate playoff. That was instituted in 2018. The last U.S. Open playoff was Tiger Woods beating Rocco Mediate in 19 holes at Torrey Pines in 2008. It’s the major that has gone the longest since its last playoff.