The North Course at the Los Angeles Country Club will host the 2023 US Open. Can Viktor Hovland finally break his Major duck? Find out what Damien Kayat thinks in this comprehensive preview.
What a difference a year makes
This time last year, the LIV Golf venture was little more than a garish circus. Sure, the money posed an existential threat to the game. But the entire structure of the new venture seemed absurd. The first event at Centurion was a dud and many of the wantaway stars looked almost embarrassed to be taking part.
This year the Saudi-backed league is in a far more powerful position. Brooks Koepka became the first active LIV Golf member to win a Major Championship at Oak Hill. Then came the news of a clandestine merger between the LIV, US PGA and DP World Tours.
This sent a seismic shock through the golfing world. Greg Norman and his band of Saudi cohorts had done it, essentially legitimizing the tour in little over a year. This is going to make desertion less taboo and I expect a raft of top PGA Tour players to join the breakaway tour in months to come. But I digress.
Jon Rahm talks about the LIV-PGA Tour merger.
— LIV Golf Latest (@LIVGolfLatest) June 14, 2023
“A lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management” pic.twitter.com/wrzRbKXe81
123rd US Open
This week’s sees the penultimate Major Championship of the year: the 123rd US Open. First staged in 1895 as a 36-hole event, the US Open has been a 72-hole stroke-play event since 1898.
This event was entrenched as the second Major in the calendar until the intelligent schedule reshuffle of 2019. Organized by the oft-maligned USGA, the US Open has developed a reputation for sadistic layouts that test every facet of your game.
Strangely enough, the last three championships have all ended with a winning score of six-under-par (-6, -6, -6). As if we needed any further evidence that this event is the work of the devil himself. This year’s tournament will be staged at the North Course of the Los Angeles Country Club for the very first time.
Los Angeles Country Club
The Los Angeles Country Club began life as a nine-hole links in 1897. But public demand necessitated expansion and the club was forced to move on several occasions. It settled on its current site in 1899.
It began life with a single 18-hole layout until member George Clifford Thomas Jr set his designs on a new championship layout. He- along with Herbert Fowler- oversaw the creation of the North Course in 1921.
It has undergone several renewals and facelifts over the years (to the point that it bore very little resemblance to the original layout). Gil Hanse sort to rectify this with an extensive remodelling in 2010, removing numerous trees and restoring its original character.
This will be the first time that the North Course has hosted a Major Championship. This course also hosted the Los Angeles Open (now the Genesis Invitational) on five occasions between 1926 and 1940.
It’s obviously difficult to accurately speculate about a venue with no course form. But the USGA tends to approach each course with a similarly fiendish streak and I think it will help to look at recent US Open Championships.
This course is yet another monster at close to 7,500 yards. This event has become a stronghold of the bigger drivers in recent years. Bryson DeChambeau memorably hit only 22 fairways when he won at Winged Foot. And this emphasis on length over accuracy will only be exacerbated at a course with very wide fairways (though the fairways do wind around at weird angles and will require a degree of strategy).
The penal rough may not prove that decisive on a course with such inviting fairways. The key to victory this week will be finding a portion of the fairway where you can approach these intimidating, elevated bentgrass greens. GIR and Scrambling will likely prove huge stats in charting success around here.
The lovely Los Angeles Country Club.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 12, 2023
It's @USOpenGolf week 🤩
📸 @USGA pic.twitter.com/UBCnzU2k3P
The Contenders
Brooks Koepka will be aiming to sing off a magnificent period in the history of LIV Golf with his second successive Major Championship. A two-time US Open champion, it’s hard to not envisage him in contention this week.
Scottie Scheffler has been a perennial contender on leaderboards this season and he will be nigh-on unstoppable if he gets that putter singing. Rory McIlroy should theoretically love the look of this course. But he once again faded in contention at the RBC Canadian Open and I’m really starting to lose faith in his ability to win a fifth Major title.
Jon Rahm has been slightly underwhelming in his last two tournaments and is almost flying under the radar this week. He won at Torrey Pines in 2021 and he is arguably the best player in the world when everything is working.
Defending champion Matthew Fitzpatrick has been solid in his last two outings but I think that this layout tends to mitigate his greatest asset: accuracy. He leads a strong English contingent who have been flirting with contention of late (Hatton, Fleetwood and Rose).
And let’s not forget the great depth in American golf. DeChambeau has been looking far more assured of late and Jordan Spieth should feel a bit more fluid following that wrist injury. I haven’t even mentioned Patrick Cantlay or Xander Schauffele. This could be an epic week in what has been a very volatile period in world golf.
Past Winners
2022: Matt Fitzpatrick (-6)
2021: Jon Rahm (-6)
2020: Bryson DeChambeau (-6)
2019: Gary Woodland (-13)
2018: Brooks Koepka (+1)
2017: Brooks Koepka (-16)
Value Bets
Odds TBA*
There is plenty of value floating about the US Open markets this week. Let’s have a look at some of the guys who could come in at bigger prices this week.
Cameron Smith
Another Major victory would be the ultimate prize for Greg Norman and his band of rogues. And I just have the feeling that reigning Open champion Cam Smith will be in contention this week.
Like St Andrews- where he won his Claret Jug- the North Course has generous fairways that invite strong driving. He has played well on the LIV Tour since an inexplicable 34th at the Masters.
He really showed his class at Oak Hill. He played himself out of contention over the first two days before a final-round 65 saw him climb inside the top 10. He is an exceptional iron player who scrambles magnificently.
Justin Rose
It feels longer than ten years since Justin Rose won his one and only Major in this event. He actually won the 2013 US Open with a score of one-over-par at the hellish Merion.
The 42-year-old Englishman also finished in a tie for third at Pebble Beach in 2019. And the former World No.1 seems to have found some of his best form of late.
He has finishes of T9, T12 and T8 in his last three starts. That included a T9 at Oak Hill after his finished 16th at the Masters. This is all the more incredible considering he ranks 104th for Strokes Gained off the Tee this season. That stat should be mitigated somewhat by these enormous fairways.
The Man to Beat- Viktor Hovland
Surely, it’s just a matter of time until Viktor Hovland tastes Major Championship glory. The remarkable Dane has now found himself in contention in each of his last three Major Championships.
He finished T7 at this year’s Masters before pushing Koepka all the way in Oak Hill. Some players may have slumped their shoulders after his mini-breakdown at the US PGA Championship.
But the affable Hovland followed a T16 at the Charles Schwab Challenge with a fantastic playoff victory at the Memorial. That victory was his fourth US PGA Tour title and first victory on American soil. He looks a real contender this week.
Other Bets
Of course, there are plenty of other interesting markets available for the third Major of the year. Here I’ll go through my picks for the top debutant as well as the top American this week.
Top Debutant- Vincent Norrman
I can easily look past Vincent Norman’s missed cut in Canada. And let’s face it, none of these debutants are really in with a realistic chance of winning this week. Norman has one key thing on his side this week: distance.
The Swede ranked 2nd in Driving Distance at Colonial. He has also shown some decent form of late, finishing T18 at the Mexico Championship and T8 at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Top American- Jordan Spieth
I realised that I hadn’t chosen one American this week. That is usually a recipe for disaster in US Open golf (though the last two renewals have been won by a Spaniard and an Englishman).
I just have a feeling that Spieth could mount a serious charge this year. He is one of the world’s best iron players and one of the best scramblers in the history of the game. He couldn’t really mount a realistic Grand Slam charge at Oak Hill due to a wrist injury. But he looked reinvigorated at Muirfield, finishing in a tie for fifth.
