Lessons learned from 2023 US Open: Rory McIlroy embarks on latest thrill ride, Los Angeles Country Club playing just right
LOS ANGELES – The story of the US Open coming up this week is how well the Los Angeles Country Club, which has never hosted a tournament of this magnitude, will perform. The story after round 1 of the US Open is believed by many people Roll and lie down for the best players in the world.
Round 1 at the LACC had the lowest GPA (71.3) in US Open history by about one shot. After no one shot a 62 in the previous 122 editions of the tournament, two of them were shot in the first six hours of this year’s event: one by Rickie Fowler, the other by Xander Schauffele.
This made the fans extremely angry. Although no one exactly says these words, they are the underpinnings of every comment: What happened to my grandfather’s US Open?
I’m afraid, if you want to see your grandfather’s US Open, you’ll have to follow the PGA Championship, where long, rough rolls and discus-sized turf marked the event. that in the past few years. Instead, we should applaud the USGA for not manipulating the golf course in an attempt to preserve the score and instead letting one of the great racetracks on the West Coast decide who scores and who doesn’t.
Behind Thursday’s series of birdies was how many different scores there were. Two players hit 62, but two others hit 79. Fowler beat one major champion on his team, Jason Day, by 11 strokes and another, Justin Rose, by 14.
The difference in scores, rather than sheer brutality, was indicative of an enormous test, and LACC certainly provided the difference. By the time Fowler and Schauffele finished, no one was more than five points behind them. There were two 62s but no 63, two 64s but no 66. Great hits won the day and brought the lead at the top of the table.
Would I prefer a faster, firmer, tougher setup? Absolute. Some are due to the lack of wind and some are because the USGA makes it easy for players to enter this championship. One thing is for sure: The GPA won’t be 71.3 on any of the other three days.
“I’m sure after Rickie does what he did, they’ll make it a little harder for us. [Friday] afternoon,” Max Homa said after shooting 68 in the first round.
“Certainly they moved some tees up today,” said Harris English after the age of 67. “I’m a bit surprised by that. For me, this is probably the easiest game to play today. I’m sure when we look at those scores, some people under 8 years old, they won’t like it. But, yeah, that’s probably the shortest match he can play today. No crazy, crazy pegs, so I think it can only get tougher from there. This.”
Phil Mickelson after his 1-under 69 game said: “I think the pitch is set up amazingly. harder as it goes on. But I think it’s such a great setup that, of course, the score will be a bit lower with receptive blue etc. But there will be more teeth on this course if they want to use it, and still well, it’s fair.”
It is not possible to win the golf set-up contest. Make it too easy and the fans will roar. Make it too hard, just a little wind and players will go on a rampage. There is no middle ground when it comes to building championship golf courses.
It will get harder from here, and I hope it will. But on Thursday, the USGA postponed the golf course, and that’s to its credit.
Whatever happens from here, the LACC is unlikely to be your grandfather’s US Open or even your dad’s. That’s okay because while last year’s US Opens may have been harder and scarier, that doesn’t mean they were better. Just because it’s not hard doesn’t mean it’s a bad test. No one likes an artificial curve just because a teacher believes that only certain students will get an “A.”
Who’s in there?
I love statistics that cut the field, and Justin Ray had a good one on Thursday when he noted that almost every US Open champion of the past 50 years (85% accurate) was five strokes after 18 holes. If that’s the case, your 2023 champion will be one of the following:
- Rickie Fowler (-8)
- Xander Schauffele (-8)
- Wyndham Clark (-6)
- Dustin Johnson (-6)
- Brian Harman (-5)
- Rory McIlroy (-5)
- Bryson DeChambeau (-3)
- Scottie Scheffler (-3)
- Si Woo Kim (-3)
- Paul Barjon (-3)
- English Harris (-3)
- Sam Bennett (-3)
- Mackenzie Hughes (-3)
Creativity reigns
Talk more course! I watched a lot of live golf on Thursday and one feature of LACC impressed me more than all the others. More than any other track played by the best players in the world, it allows players to think and create creativity. There are countless examples of this, but we’ll only look at two.
The first game came early in the day when amateur Michael Brennan threw the ball to win the birdie. You know, a very fun and great course when you see players aiming out of the hole trying to get close to the hole. Time and time again, players play shots like you see below.
The second hole is probably the best hole on the course, the 6th hole par-4. You can play it on the left, in the middle, or through the trees (see below). When was the last time you saw the best players in the world play a hole in different ways? The course allows you to layer your game on top of it and allows you to play it in a variety of ways. It’s obviously fun, but it’s also fun to watch because you never really know what’s going to happen next.
Scottie puts (and his mind)
Scottie Scheffler shoots 67, that’s what he does at the major championships. What’s more interesting is that he hit 1.4 putts, a rarity for him lately. He brushed off any actual comments about the shot, saying, “I’ve rolled it beautifully, have seen some shots come in. Pretty good.” However, this is a big deal because of his supremacy when playing tee to green.
We’ve been saying all week that if Scheffler makes a putt, it’s over. He is simply the best dribbling striker in the field, and at the end of 72 holes that will shine. He is also perhaps the most patient player in the field, which he believes will succeed in the league on Sunday night.
“For me it was an interesting challenge,” says Scheffler. “For example, today I start with 1, and 1 is probably the easiest [or] second easiest hole on the golf course. I hit a good shot and it ended up at the edge of the bunker, and I didn’t really have a shot to push it down the stream. It’s true that there’s a place on the whole hole where you can hit where you won’t have a shot, and my ball found its way in. And not only that, it went downhill, even worse.
“In the regular leagues things like that can really hurt you, and in the pro leagues you just feel like you can wait for your moments and hit the shots. And like today, I waited for my moments and hit the good shot in the 9th and made a good hit, then ran well there and was able to capitalize. I just feel more challenged about everything that fits my game than some of the easier tests we see on the Tour throughout the year.”
This is similar to what Brooks Koepka, who knows something about winning a major championship, has said in the past when explaining how major tournaments are often easier than regular events. Here’s Scheffler more or less saying the same thing as Koepka in a different way. That mindset — patience, endurance, and discipline — is why they’re both such great champions.
Easy Rory 65
Rory McIlroy quietly scored an easy 5 under 65 at the end of the day to make it to the third round of the leads. For a while, it looks like it will be 55. He shot the first two and five of his first eight and didn’t really miss a shot in the first two hours of the round. It’s the eighth time he’s shot 65 or more in his main career, placing fourth all-time behind Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Jack Nicklaus (good company).
It will be interesting to see how he handles a dial golf course over the next few days, but it’s remarkable to observe someone who over the past few months has at times seemed a little annoyed with his game hitting 16. on 18 regulated greens and really control a big round of golf.
There is a theory that exists that suggests Rory only wins on a gentle, receptive setup. Perhaps there is some truth in it. The next three days will be on that front. However, the truth revealed from Thursday’s round, in which Rory beat playing partner Brooks Koepka by six points and broke into the top five, is this: There’s no more compelling story in the next three days. by whether Rory can match Brooks’ main score. of the year and add LACC to his crazy collection of major titles.
McIlroy has come close to it many times. He’s been ahead so many times, narrowly missed so many times. It’s easy to redeem as he punishes the driver and rushes right into the middle of each green. It’s easy to believe all the time until the exact moment when it’s not. Whether or not that will happen and when will be one of the stories — perhaps the story — of the next three days.
Hop on the ride, it will be a thrill.
