Among the many intriguing things about Los Angeles Country Club, host venue for this year's US Open, is the barranca that was restored to its former glory during Gil Hanse's renovation.
Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackleford were tasked with bringing George Thomas' 1928 creation back to life after the passage of time had softened some of its features.
That included the barranca that is common in this part of North California, but what exactly is barranca and what role will it play this week? Put simply, a barranca is a deep gully or ravine with steep sides. At LACC, it features prominently and could have a big bearing on who comes out on top come Sunday evening.
The North Course barranca is filled with different types of grasses, native sand and bushes, making it look like wasteland. It first comes into play on the long par-4 second, guarding the front of the green and putting a premium on finding the fairway.
It returns on the third, awaiting any rogue tee shots that drift left and don't make the 280-yard carry. As for the rest of the front nine, it is in play on the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth.
Collin Morikawa described the challenge it posed during a practice round when he played the short par-4 sixth that draws parallels with Riviera's famous 10th.
"We hit two irons off the tee and I hit one in the rough, and I was never going to hit the green from the rough," Morikawa said. "But whatever they call it, the barranca down below, below where the bunker is down there, it is very bad.
"You can get a very bad lie, but you can also get a lie that's all right to where you can hack it out to the middle of the green."
Perhaps its most spectacular appearance comes on the par-5 eighth. The fairway slopes steeply from left to right, steering balls towards the barranca off the tee, before it bisects the hole and comes back into play up the left-hand side approaching the green.
It's less of a factor on the back nine, but you might still see some of the game's best playing out of it up the right of 17. Hanse, Wagner and Shackleford have done a superb job of making it both strategically challenging and visually stunning.
The barranca that winds through the course also has a practical purpose. It provides effective drainage, as it can be shaped to encourage water to flow into it and to follow a certain path through it, given the lack of rainfall in the LA area.
