LOS ANGELES – There were plenty of low-scoring golfers in the first two rounds of the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka wasn’t one of them.
“I’m not a huge fan of this place,” Koepka, who was even after 36 holes, said Friday. “I’m not a big fan of blind tee shots, and then I think there are just some points where no matter what you hit, the ball ends up in the same place.
“I think it would be more interesting to play on a regular tour than at the US Open. I mean, there’s, what, eight seconds yesterday? That didn’t happen.”
Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele set the US Open scoring record with an 8-under 62-second 30-minute lead in the opening round on Thursday.
And Koepka, the two-time US Open champion, said he played better in the past two days than he did in the final two rounds of the PGA Championship last month at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.
There, Koepka posted scores of 4-under 66 and 3-under 67 in the weekend to defeat Viktor Hovland and Scotty Scheffler by two strokes to win his third Wanamaker Trophy.
For whatever reason, Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, which is hosting the US Open for the first time, doesn’t suit him.
“I’ve won major divisions on golf courses that I didn’t really like that much,” Koepka said. “But, yeah, this one, I don’t know. It’s not my favourite.”
Koepka, captain of Smash GC in the LIV Golf League, was 10 strokes behind Fowler when he signed his scorecard on Friday.
“Obviously I have to play a couple of good rounds, and that’s something I have to do,” Koepka said. “But I certainly would like to be farther from where I am. But it all depends on what happens today, if the winds pick up… Who knows what those guys will get up to.”
Koepka hit just 10 of 18 greens on Friday. He sent 1-under 69 on the tour.
“I thought every pin placement was right,” said Koepka. “I didn’t think anything was really cheated. I guess I didn’t play that great so I wouldn’t get a really good number.”