LOS ANGELES — Rory McIlroy plays a bunker shot during a practice round prior to the 123rd U.S. Open Championship at The Los Angeles Country Club on June 14, 2023. | Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images
The first round of the 2023 U.S. Open is barely underway, but players have had to hit some wild shots at the Los Angeles Country Club already.
The Los Angeles Country Club is hosting the U.S. Open for the first time.
The course has plenty of slope and undulations, five par-3s, and a drivable par-4 that will make the players think long and hard about how to best approach it.
Not even midway through Thursday’s opening round, LACC’s unique layout has been on full display already.
At the par-4 3rd, which measures 403 yards and has a green shaped like a molar, Michael Brennan, an amateur from Wake Forest, used his imagination to make a birdie:
The amateur holed out in unbelievable fashion, chipping away from the hole and using the crazy slope to his advantage.
Brennan is no stranger to brilliant shots; he needed a miraculous up-and-down to secure a spot at the 123rd U.S. Open in final qualifying.
Plenty of players will use the various slopes around LACC to get their shots closer to the hole as the championship wears on.
But some will face difficult lies as Bryson DeChambeau did on the par-4 12th hole.
The 12th, listed as 374 yards on Thursday, provides the field with a birdie opportunity before the difficult par-4 13th.
DeChambeau hit a great drive down the middle of the fairway but then left his second shot short of the green. His ball ended up in some gnarly rough on the bank of a bunker:
He managed to get up and down from there, a pretty impressive scramble from the 2020 U.S. Open champion.
Dechambeau went on to birdie the par-5 14th and then the par-3 15th, which may play as short as 80 yards during the championship.
On the 15th, Dechambeau utilized another one of the undulations at LACC to get his tee shot close to the hole:
Players have compared this U.S. Open setup to Augusta National, and rightfully so. The topography of Los Angeles Country Club has tremendous undulation and elevation changes, making this U.S. Open look more like the Masters than traditional U.S. Open layouts.
You can be sure that as this tournament progresses, even crazier shots will be played.
