LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Open turned nasty on Saturday.
Two days after Los Angeles Country Club endured a birdie barrage under soft conditions, including not one but two record-breaking 62s in less than 30 minutes, LACC showed its teeth, and it may end up having the last laugh.
“It’s just diabolical,” Bryson DeChambeau said. “It’s a completely different test of golf than a normal U.S. Open.”
The sun popped out Saturday morning, drying the greens and making the course play fast and firm the way it was designed to be. The field scoring average was still a modest 71.850, slightly easier than round two’s 72.230.
“It’s gotten to where it’s links style,” DeChambeau said. “That’s the best way I can describe it. I feel like I’m playing a British Open now in a sense.”
LACC began to bite back on Friday, most notably with Dustin Johnson making a quadruple-bogey eight on the second hole and Justin Thomas shooting 81. You knew the U.S. Open was messing with minds when Brooks Koepka said that he didn’t like the course that much, singling out the blind shots.
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The chorus of complaints for LACC grew on Saturday with Viktor Hovland saying, “You know what, I’m not a big fan of this golf course, to be honest. I think there’s some good holes. I don’t think there’s any great holes. I think there’s a few bad holes. I think No. 9 is probably the best hole out here in my opinion.”
Hovland wasn’t the only one to share their distaste for the George Thomas Jr. design from the 1920s, which received a renovation in 2010 from Gil Hanse, his partner Jim Wagner and architecture critic and golf blogger Geoff Shackelford.
“I just think the golf course is interesting, to be polite, I think. There’s just too many holes for me where you’ve got blind tee shots and then you’ve got fairways that don’t hold the ball. There’s too much slope,” Matt Fitzpatrick, the defending U.S. Open champion said. “I think the greens certainly play better when they’re firmer. I definitely think that’s the case. They’re rolling really, really well. Some of the tee shots are just – I think they’re a little bit unfair. You hit a good tee shot and end up in the rough by a foot and then you’re hacking it out. Meanwhile, someone has hit it miles offline the other way and they’ve got a shot. Yeah, not my cup of tea.”
Speaking on Friday, Rory McIlroy, took a different stance:
“Yes, the course has played maybe a little easier than everyone thought it would, but wouldn’t be surprised on Saturday/Sunday to see it bite back, which going back to your question I feel is what a U.S. Open is all about. It should be tough. It should be just as much of a mental grind out there as a physical one.”
In the final analysis, LACC has identified a stacked leaderboard and exposed any weaknesses in a player’s game. A U.S. Open without players complaining would be like a June without weddings.
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