[Tal Oz]

Tim, having just come back from walking LACC, believe me the players want nothing to do with the barrancas. Especially given our wet winter, they are very thick in there. Sure you might get a decent lie, but in general it's pretty nasty out there. If you miss right on 8 or 17 your recovery options are bleak even if you can get a clean look at the ball.

The barranca at Wilshire plays very differently. It has water in it year round. It is generally much more narrow meaning if you do end up with a playable lie it's nearly always a pitch out. And lastly, there are multiple locations where it's concrete. I can't find the video, but there was a LPGA player who tried to hit out of the concrete wall barranca on 18 a few years ago.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Back to LACC architecture, do any of you that are familiar with the restoration or how the course plays for the members know why the barrancas that border the driving areas are thinned out with many bare patches. It looks from what I have seen on TV that the barrancas bordering the driving areas have many thinned out or bare areas that might give the pros decent shots at the greens if they hit into a barranca with a drive or short of some greens. My experience with barrancas as a Cali golfers has been that if you hit into one your not likely hitting out but taking a penalty shot. At LACC I see that the barrancas in front of the tees are overgrown and unplayable like I am familiar with but the pros will never hit it there.
Earlier last month when the LPGA played Wilshire it seemed like the barrancas there were very penalizing. Did the club clear out the barrancas in driving areas so members wouldn't lose so many balls or is that what the barrancas looked like when the course was built?

I saw a walkthrough with Hanse. He wanted the barrancas to be more natural.

[Kalen Braley]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

[Anthony Butler]

Good work on sharing these videos Ben - plenty to look forward to. Given the opposition of the players to rolling back the ball it will be interesting to see if there are any complaints about the longer par 3s this week!

The way they detailed the 11th on GC this morning is that while the card says 290, you only need to fly it 265-270yds to get over the bunker on the right. It's about 45ft downhill from tee to green with the prevailing wind behind so more like 245yds. You'll probably see most competitors hit a 5 wood and some of the longer players may even hit an iron if the tee is not at the back of the box.

[Alex Miller]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

Heard this yesterday and I find it fascinating. Hitting the lower bowl with a wedge shouldn't be difficult for these guys, and I'd imagine easier than hitting that strip of fairway. If firmness and fastness hold a ratio together I would imagine the pros could draw it back to ~20ft leaving a slightly downhill putt vs a 30-40ft uphill putt/chip.

[Kalen Braley]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

Heard this yesterday and I find it fascinating. Hitting the lower bowl with a wedge shouldn't be difficult for these guys, and I'd imagine easier than hitting that strip of fairway. If firmness and fastness hold a ratio together I would imagine the pros could draw it back to ~20ft leaving a slightly downhill putt vs a 30-40ft uphill putt/chip.

Its an interesting one.

Google earth shows that front part of the green at 9 yards wide from fringe to fringe (which is basically the same width as the back part of Riv #10).  And the fairway section in front of that is about 19 yards wide.  Could be a reasonable strategy.

P.S.  Given the brutal length of 5 of the last 6 holes, I wonder if they'll entertain moving the tees up on 12? If they used the forward tee box it'd be about a 255 yard carry to the green at approx 50 feet uphill.

[Alex Miller]

I'd imagine the front 9 will average close to or below even par for the week and the back around +2. Everyone has to play 18 so it balances it out, but I believe to keep folks from going low they won't give away much to the players on the back 9, except maybe moving the tee up a little on 14 so it's ~600 yds instead of 620 to tempt them to go for the green.

[Mike Hendren]

I’m confused - is the 15th the original 17th?  If not, what happened? 

[Rob Marshall]

Shaping up to be a great weekend of golf. Love this leaderboard plus Phil missed the cut. Bonus….

[Tommy Williamsen]

You have to take your hat off to Rickie Fowler. He came back from the dead. When he was playing awfully he never complained but always was classy. Good for him.

[Rob Marshall]

You have to take your hat off to Rickie Fowler. He came back from the dead. When he was playing awfully he never complained but always was classy. Good for him.

Butch and Craig Harmon have done a great job helping Rickie. LACC is providing a great tournament. All the bitching was for nothing. This is going to be a great US Open.

[Jim Hoak]

Amen, Rob!

[Steve_ Shaffer]

With all the threads about LACC, I decided to post this:

Inside LACC, the U.S. Open golf course that generations have kept a secret

LOS ANGELES — There was nothing but oil fields and dirt roads around it, just a golf course seemingly built in plain sight but destined to be hidden. Soon the buildings went up and the people came in and it was surrounded. Los Angeles became a metropolis. Beverly Hills became the center of the stars. And in the middle of it all was a course nobody could enter. Few ever got to see it, entertainers included. Shielded from the public and certainly from minorities, Los Angeles Country Club sunk into the margins of golf as the greatest course the world didn’t get to know.
It was all so intentional, you see. They turned away the USGA time after time for nearly 100 years. The closest it ever came to opening these doors was a vote to host the 1986 U.S. Open, with factions pleading for this to be LACC’s public moment.
It was voted down, five votes to four.
“I find it so regrettable,” former USGA president Sandy Tatum told ESPN in 2004. “Just once I would have liked to have had the Open experience that course. It was an absolute marvelous test of golf.”


Read more:

https://theathletic.com/4604651/2023/06/13/us-open-golf-lacc-history

[Carl Johnson]

I was speaking with my son on the phone this morning (Fathers Day); he has played both the north and south courses at LACC, but has not watched any of the tournament on TV.  He wondered whether any south course holes had been incorporated into the sequence for the US Open?  No mention of such on TV that I've heard.

[Rob Marshall]

Looks to me like on some of the holes there are no tee boxes. Looks like the markers are set in the fairway. Reminds me of Streamsong Blue. Seems to me they had a few holes like that.

[Ben Stephens]

I have to say a great finish at LACC - Wyndham Clark a well deserved winner whose scrambling was off the scale a great story. Rory again other missed opportunity - a cold putter and misfiring wedges - he will get there if he keeps this form going.


LACC despite a lot of praise and criticisms from all angles no one said it better than Michael Kim that a birdie or a bogey is razor thin and the quality of the golf was unbelievable.


Are players better than they were 10, 20 years ago possibly. Does the ball help - possibly. Generally pro golf playing wise has never been better than ever - fitness, mental approach, understanding biometrics, getting the most of the ball with the current equipment helped by high quality of the course set up.


What would the score have been in 1986 had LACC voted for hosting the championship which went to Shinnecock instead.


That two putt on the last hole took a lot of guts.


From a TV standpoint it was the most interesting US Open I have seen for years - possibly the most birdies in a championship and the course looked fantastic plus gives you some ideas and inspiration as a GCA.

[Kalen Braley]

I was speaking with my son on the phone this morning (Fathers Day); he has played both the north and south courses at LACC, but has not watched any of the tournament on TV.  He wondered whether any south course holes had been incorporated into the sequence for the US Open?  No mention of such on TV that I've heard.

It was all the North course.  The only "deviation" is that little 17 (which technically was one of the original holes) was not in play.


P.S.  Ben I too would have liked to see how the pros handled it with mid-80s equipment.

[Jeff Evagues]

One thing that has to change is the caddies doing quantum mechanics before every single shot. How did Hogan ever win a tournament without all the astrophysics?

[David Kelly]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

And, of course, he didn't do that.

[Kalen Braley]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

And, of course, he didn't do that.

I noticed that too.  I wasn't surprised, but I did wonder for at least a tad when he walked off 14 green if he would...

P.S.  Overall I'm disappointed there wasn't more drama on 15 in general, but once again these guys are good right?

[David Kelly]

"In an interview with NBC Sports' John Wood, Rickie revealed he plans to purposely miss the 15th green short if/when the USGA puts the pin up front to make it about an 80-yard shot."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/u-s-open-2023-you-won-t-believe-how-rickie-fowler-is-planning-to-play-the-shortest-par-3-in-major-championship-history/ar-AA1cxFnV?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=eb42c3116bdd49c389b66f0c32da0f3a&ei=22

And, of course, he didn't do that.

I noticed that too.  I wasn't surprised, but I did wonder for at least a tad when he walked off 14 green if he would...

P.S.  Overall I'm disappointed there wasn't more drama on 15 in general, but once again these guys are good right?

I was thinking that 15 might play hard at the short distance - because it certainly has for me - but I asked a friend of mine who was at the practice session on Monday and Tuesday how the 15th was playing and he said they were knocking the pin down.


Friday's pin proved the most interesting and probably gave up the most 3-putts.  Anyone who stopped above the ridge had to putt away from the hole and depending on what angle they took the ball sometimes rolled way past the pin or got hung up on the ridge and barely trickled down.

[Pete_Pittock]

Only after retrospection I concluded LACC and the US Open played similarly to another recent major, ANGC and The Masters.  -10 vs -12. The shape of the greens, with carbuncles and wings and holes which accented them was much more pleasureable than rounded greens which were as accepting as straw-backed archery targets. Greens angled to directions of play such as LACC-N15 and ANGC12, where the line of charm beckoned like a chanteuse.
Where they weren't similar was the bunkering, one decked with white monocles, round with flat lies and youe ball nowhere near the edge versus the other with bushy eyebrows around the frames, with the ball likely found in awkward positions.


When the next "rating"s show up LACC-N should easily make the top ten IMHO.

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