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LOS ANGELES – Started Friday afternoon in a group of five. At center was honest Brooks Koepka. He was sensual, soft-spoken, yet transparent in his thoughts about the Los Angeles Country Club.
“I’m not a big fan of this place,” Koepka said of the US Open host. He doesn’t like blind tee shots. He doesn’t like lanes where all the shots tend to congregate in the same area. He thinks it will be more fun on the “normal tour” than at the US Open. interesting.
There is a bit of a domino effect that happens with professional golfers in front of the media. Once one player speaks a certain way, most of the others feel more comfortable doing it themselves. Nobody wants to be the first. But they are much happier being second or third in the talking section. Now that Koepka has done that, he’s clearing the way for someone else.
Enter: Matt Fitzpatrick.
Fitz measured too, but more than anything he was trying to be polite. The defending champion used this word literally.
“I think the golf course is interesting,” he said, “and to be polite.” “There are too many holes for me where you have blind putts on the tee and then you have fairways that don’t catch the ball. There’s a lot of gradient.”
Fitz would go on a bit more, but his final sentence on the matter was succinct and entirely adequate: “It’s not my cup of tea.”
His European friend Victor Hofland was not entirely friendly. While being interviewed by a USGA press officer, Hovland said the LACC doesn’t have any major loopholes, just some good ones, and definitely some bad ones. This isn’t a story specifically the USGA wanted to tell, so the questioning quickly slid in a different direction, but Hovland stuck with the player on goal-scoring to explain himself a bit.
“There are a few good holes, but in my opinion when a good hole – or a better hole on a golf course – is equal to a par three of 290 yards, it’s probably not that great. I think 13 is really bad. 14 is bad. I feel like a 5, Yes you have a lot room, but she plays very small. I feel like everyone hits a good shot, we all end up in the same place.”
Hovland doesn’t like the sheer slope of the fairway on the 13th, and to avoid that, players have to aim for the rough and hit the cut. He does not like that the 14th hole is a forced cut that requires a large haul of bunkers. He doesn’t like the green sloping from front to back, like the 14th does with a pin on the right side.
He loves the old courses designed by Donald Ross. He admires Pete Dye’s work. He’s not a huge fan of Muirfield Village, having won just two weeks ago. But one thing is clear from the young Vic, he doesn’t like LACC and, after all, he’s been sharing these thoughts.
In terms of format, PGA Tour players don’t usually flop on PGA Tour courses. This is where their bread is buttered. When they do, in front of PGA Tour staff, it’s like gossiping about your sister right in front of them. Honesty can be set aside for now. But at the US Open, players feel much freer to criticize. As we learned in Chambers Bay and Erin Hills, it can turn into a hurricane of daggers hurled at the track and/or the USGA.
Did the drive from Koepka to Fitzpatrick to Hovland — each winner of the big USGA golf events — feel like the locker room was beginning to deteriorate on the host course? Ask around the range or near the player register and LACC seems not perfect. There are not many courses. Nobody drools at press conferences. Terrell Hatton thinks there’s a lot of emphasis on distance.
“I think for most of the US Opens now, they just go to length rather than — I hope they go back to what I remember about the US Open,” Hatton said. Like where he was definitely about [7,100-yard] sign that’s hard. This is good. But they just make it – it’s hard but then it’s silly for a long time too sometimes. I mean 13 – I’m by no means the shortest hitter in the round, but I’ve got a 245 out there and I’m hitting a ramp with the ball over my feet. I’m like, “This is stupid.”
Hutton also isn’t keen on the Bermuda grass you find on the LACC fairways and gobbling up the hard ball. He thinks it’s a bit inconsistent. We were getting into the nitty gritty. Keith Mitchell doesn’t like the lawn either, but he does love the course. This was a change of pace.
“I think if the grass were different, it would be one of the best pitches we play on all year round,” he said. “And if they’ve had a proper growing season too. I know they’ve had a bad winter here because of the growing season. I feel like it’s a bit — I don’t know if Galore is the right word—but yeah, there’s a different grass, like East Coast grass, that one might be the best in the world.”
You’d think Mitchell and Koepka couldn’t be more divergent in their opinions on the LACC, but then Mitchell volunteered a similar idea for Koepka.
“There is a difference in the golf courses that you use for recreation and the golf courses that you use as a test,” said Mitchell. “I think TPC Southwind (FedEx St. Jude host) is one of the better golf tests. But, like, nobody likes it.
“I feel like [LACC] It falls more into the fun category, but I don’t think it’s lacking on the competition side. I don’t think it’s like losingI think it’s still at the top. I just don’t think it is as good as some of the others [host sites]. “
This is what happens with golf courses, especially the ones that host the biggest events on the planet. You’re not going to get 156 players with all different kinds of good luck and bad luck to agree on the merits of ownership. Players at the bottom of the leaderboard tend to think less of a path than their competitors.
Scotty Scheffler called it “a very fun place to play golf” and added that he loves it. He is three shots behind the lead. Brisson Dechambeau loves it too. He described it as satanic, usually a term rooted in negativity. Only DeChambeau means it is positive.
“It’s more of a bond,” he said. He knows he doesn’t play the British Open, but says it feels like it. Linksy Refreshing and you can tell by the way he speaks that DeChambeau is feeling very lively in LACC. Going into the final day, he has a chance of hitting the seventh.
Mitchell is activated by half holes. Those holes are where the scoring average falls neatly between The integers 3, 4, 5, and 6. Are they long par-3 or short par-4? Possibly half of the LACC are half par openings. Mitchell says this is how you create an above-par/under-par goal variance, pushing and pulling players up and down the leaderboard. This is how you create an entertaining tournament to watch on TV. Not everyone will always be happy.
Our final subject on this press trip was Nick Hardy, who after shooting his worst round of the week (75), which he described as an absolute slam dunk, deftly put the debate into entirely relatable terms.
“You can get a sandwich at any restaurant,” Hardy said. “People will love it and they won’t. I think that’s the way this tournament and this golf course are.”
If you’re interested in which direction it’s leaning, that’s the upside. He couldn’t say enough good things about LACC. He just knows how his fellow professionals can get him.