A US Open where the fairways seem wider than they really are

Rickie Fowler is walking toward his ball on the fairway of hole 18 of los angeles country clubon a cold and cloudy Sunday afternoon when he looked to his right and left and asked himself an unusual question when it came to US Open.

“There are many different things about this US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, and that’s more than just the second oldest championship in world golf to be held. outside Beverly Hills. The US Open hasn’t had a Bermuda grass rough since 2005 at Pinehurst No. 2, North Carolina, but the greens on the North course are bentgrass. It is true that this is one of the widest fields of the US Open. But it might help to put a warning on some tees that reads: ‘Targets are smaller than they look,’ says Fowler.

Another big change for this US Open is that it comes a week after the PGA Tour the circuit has been announced LIV Golf with the Saudi capital he fought in court is now his partner in a new business venture for profit. No one knows what this means for LIV Golf and the players who defected, or for the PGA Tour and how to appease those who decide to stay.

“I have the same amount of information as anyone else. It’s very difficult to come to any comment or take a particular position because I don’t have enough information,” he said. Justin Thomas. “Many things still need to be defined,” he added.

The double PGA champion played a practice round with Fowler and the 2015 US Open winner Jordan Spieth, a perfectly calm day to check out the course in US Open conditions. It’s cold and dry and fast. With the dry forecast, it looks like this will be a week where the USGA can control the playing conditions to their liking.

Thomas was one of the players who approached LA CC during the PGA Tour West Coast ‘run’ in February, after playing at Torrey Pines or before playing at Riviera. This is the third time in the last nine years that the US Open has been held at a course for the first time. The difference is that Erin Hills (2017) and Chambers Bay (2015) They only opened their facilities 10 years before the US Open, and are not on the list to host another one. LA CC has a lot of history and has already made sure to host another US Open in 2039.

Gil Hanse oversaw the redevelopment of George Thomas Jr.’s design. twelve years ago in a field first moved to this property in 1911. It offers almost everything. “It’s great, very unique,” Thomas said. “It has a wide variety of very short and very long holes. Putting the ball in the fairway is a prize. But you have a lot of second shots where you play the wedge, and then you have holes where you’re trying to figure out how to I have no idea how the result will turn out.

Par 3s get a lot of attention, and that’s a first for Thomas: It’s the first time he’s played a 3-wood on a par 3 twice in a round. The first is on hole 7, which is 284 yards (about 256 meters). The second, on the 11th, with 290 yards (261 meters).

Thomas also emphasized the importance of getting fairways. On the 380-yard 12th hole, Thomas and Fowler hit a long iron into the fairway, leaving a wedge or 9-iron on the green. Spieth drives into the edge of a bunker on the left side. The grass is fast enough that the ball rolls and doesn’t stop until it hits the rough on the right. It took him a while to find her. I had a lob wedge on the green when I couldn’t control it, and control is everything in a US Open. The rough doesn’t have to be too thick to punish a blow when it comes to Bermuda. The balls were swallowed. Since it was Sunday, the volunteer marshals had not yet come out to the field. “Every time we left the fairway, more than one took a few minutes to find the ball,” Thomas said. “It’s very rare in California, let alone at a US Open. I don’t know if I played the US Open with Bermuda. But it’s very, very unpleasant,” he concluded.