Just returned from my trip to the West Coast and wanted to report back on the new South Course at LACC. As others have stated, the course is the perfect complement to the relentlessly challenging North course. Fun & fair off the tee, challenging on and around the greens, firm playing conditions and a much easier walk than the North. Definitely a course that I could play every day. The thing I liked most about the South was that it definitely borrowed some elements from the North and had a similar feel in places, but still managed to stand on its own as a unique design. The land was neither as dramatic (with the exception of the ridge that runs along holes 4-8) nor as secluded as its “big brother” on the other side of Wilshire Blvd, but the rolling terrain provided enough interest and playing options to hold your attention throughout the round. My favorite stretch of holes was 5-9 (even though I didn’t love #7, more on that later) as they played back and forth across the wash.
I felt that Hanse and Co. did a nice job of balancing the difficulty of the course by creating smaller greens with significantly more slope than the North to keep longer players honest. On the day that we played the pin on #9 was on the far left-hand side of the green, directly behind the bunker. This required us to choose hitting to a target roughly the size of my kitchen table with a wedge/short iron or bailing out to the right and having to navigate a huge swale in the middle of the green when putting. My only complaint about the greens was that they were incredibly firm, likely a direct result of the fact that the course has only be open for a few months and will hopefully resolve itself in due time.
In terms of the design and routing, I only had few points of contention regarding the otherwise solid layout.
- #7: I imagine a number of folks will really like this short, uphill one-shoter that hangs precariously along the edge of the ridge with significant left to right slope to feed the ball toward the hole. However, I felt the routing was a bit forced and wedged (pun intended) into its location to enable the transition from the great green site on #6 to the tee box location on #8, a solid dogleg left par 5. That said, if this was the biggest routing sacrifice required to enable the rest of the layout, it was worthwhile.
- #16 tee box: In what I can only assume was an attempt to squeeze a few extra yards out of the routing, the tee box on #16 felt a little “cramped” tucked behind the restroom and halfway house alongside Wilshire. Despite having to play through a chute of trees, the shape of the hole and placement of the bunker in the middle of the fairway worked well at balancing strategy and execution when trying to go for the green in two. In fact, despite its shortcomings, #16 was actually one of my favorite holes due to the approach and greensite (see pictures below)
- “Hidden Greenside Trouble”: While the course was definitely designed to accommodate the ground game, I didn’t like how a number of hazards (bunkers) were often completely hidden from the player when approaching the greens (see photos below). The penalty for not controlling your distance seemed especially penal on #11 (uphill par-3) and #16 (downhill par-5) given the pin positions when we played (front right and back right respectively). However, this grievance would likely subside after playing the course a few times and getting a lay of the land to know where it would be more advantageous to miss short of the green.
Favorite Holes: 5, 6, 8, 10, 16Doak Score: 6
Approach coming into #6 green, reminiscent of #2 on the North course.
Close-up of the wash on #6
Tee shot back across the wash on the par-5 8th. Bunkers are definitely in play for the longer hitter, requiring the player to shape their tee ball from right to left to avoid running into the trap.
“Hidden trouble” lurking through the back of the 16
th green
Approach from the front left of 16th green, unable to see the trouble that lies just beyond the pin. Really liked how the right side pin placement required the player to approach from the left and punished those that leaked too far to the right with an almost impossible up & down if they decided to go for the green in two.