Los Angeles Country Club may be making its mainstream debut this week as host of the 123rd U.S. Open, but its roots run as deep as any elite golf course in the country.
George Thomas designed the North Course at LACC some 100 years ago, and while it has been redesigned since then (most recently by Gil Hanse beginning 15 years ago), the bones of LACC have been around for a long time. Now, all of its beauty will be exposed to a national audience while it serves as the stage for the third major championship event of the year.
The West Coast vibe at LACC is obvious from watching videos such as the one constructed by Fried Egg that you can view below. Its nuance perhaps less so. Regardless, this is a major championship hosted at a venue that may be possible for everyone — players, fans, officials and architectural geeks — to get behind. This never happens, of course, but LACC is a good candidate to make it a possibility.
Here are five things you need to know about LACC North and what to expect as the third major of the year touches down in Los Angeles.
1. The property: This is well explained in the video above. The LACC property, as well as the sense of place, are both spectacular. Set just west of Hollywood and east of Santa Monica, California, it’s an incredible spot for one of the best golf courses in the country; it’s almost as if the city was built around the course instead of the other way around. It’s not the type of course you could just drop into a city like this in 2023. The acreage itself is lovely and a golf architect’s dream given the undulation created by natural landforms. I’ll let Hanse take it from here.
“The property for LA North is a couple of ridges bisected by a barranca,” said Hanse. “It’s a great way to meander through the property. You get enough variety that you don’t feel like you’re constantly going in one direction.”
While it won’t be the rolling hills of Augusta National or the sometimes shockingly steep elevation changes of a Chambers Bay, LACC will change your eye level in such a way that players will never be completely comfortable but viewers will get incredible visuals throughout. It’s going to be amazing.
2. Half-pars: Maybe my favorite part of the way this U.S. Open will be set up and play is the half-par nature of many holes. You have the easy par-5 first hole buttressed by the difficult par-4 2nd. You have the short, 330-yard par-4 6th buttressed by the long 284-yard par-3 7th. It’s like this throughout the entire course, which creates a roller coaster of emotions for players despite only the final score mattering. This is actually the beauty of par, a mostly worthless metric that is more or less simply used to let players and fans know where everybody stands relative to the tournament. It creates unnecessary emotional distraction for players who already have a thousand thoughts running through their minds. That’s always true at U.S. Opens, and it may be more true than ever at this particular U.S. Open.
3. Love from players? There’s nothing pro golfers love more than to torch the USGA and its courses. There’s been some early indication, however, that this year may be different.
“I think it’s going to be one of the best U.S. Opens there’s been for awhile,” said world No. 4 Rory McIlroy. “I think West Coast U.S. Opens always deliver, for some reason. I think Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, even going back to like Chambers Bay. West Coast U.S. Opens I really like.
“Golf course-wise, yeah, the golf course is high quality,” said world No. 2 Jon Rahm. “The golf course could host any event you want. It’s just logistically. To me, it was the hardest part to understand.”
4. A brief history of Los Angeles, majors and LACC: While LACC has never hosted a U.S. Open, it has hosted a lot of other tournaments, most before World War II. The Los Angeles Open was played there four times (1934-1936, 1940) as well as the U.S. Women’s Amateur (1930) and U.S. Junior Amateur (1954). Since Hanse’s renovation, the only big event played there was the 2017 Walker Cup, which included a powerhouse U.S. team of Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris.
In terms of Los Angeles hosting majors, it hasn’t had one since the 1995 PGA Championship (Riviera) and has not had a U.S. Open since 1948 (Riviera). In other words, the last time Los Angeles got one of the four big ones, the Paris Peace Treaties ending World War II were 1 year old.
5. All kinds of shots: The majority of tournaments played on the PGA Tour feature identical shot-making. Point and shoot, rinse and repeat. Many major courses (especially this one), however, deliver a much different test of golf. I’m not sure that’s better exemplified than with this nugget from Jeff Hall of the USGA, who is part of the USGA setup team, regarding the tiny par-3 15th.
One of the more intriguing holes immediately precedes the daunting trio of closing par 4s. The par-3 15th is listed at 124 yards, but it played a mere 78 yards during one round of the 2017 Walker Cup Match, which featured players such as Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris on the USA side.
“If we play it at a similar yardage, it’s not a full shot for any of these guys,” said Hall. “But they’ve still got to factor in the wind and the firmness and hit a golf shot. I could see somebody having an 80-yard shot and playing it away from the hole, which seems crazy in this day and age, but maybe they’re not on top of their game or it’s the right play in a certain situation.”
An 80-yard shot that you have to play away from the hole. This is one of many shots that could be emblematic of the high risk/reward nature of LACC, which normally means we’re in for a treat of a major and the highest level of championship golf that exists.