LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA | Washington Road in Augusta, Georgia, with its fast-food clutter, and the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway just a long par-5 from Beverly Hills are as different as they are far apart.
But not unlike the way Augusta National sits tucked peacefully and privately away from the noisy commerce outside its boundaries, Los Angeles Country Club occupies one of the most valuable pieces of undeveloped urban property anywhere, surrounded by high-rise buildings overlooking a golf club that is, to borrow a Hollywood term, ready for its close-up.
If you weren’t looking for LACC driving down Wilshire Boulevard, you likely wouldn’t know it was there. There is no sign, just a road leading to a white guard house that offers access to one of the most exclusive clubs in the country.
Up a gentle slope is a white clubhouse that is as elegant as it is understated. In a city where big and splashy sells, Los Angeles Country Club doesn’t need flash. Whether having a drink on the Reagan terrace on the backside of the clubhouse (yes, it’s named for the late former president whose locker remains in the men’s locker room) or going out to play 18 holes on one of the two courses, LACC radiates style.
With Sunset Boulevard bordering the back side of the property, you’re not in Kansas anymore.
When the U.S. Open is played at LACC’s North Course next month, it will be a revelation to golf fans and, in particular, course architecture aficionados who, unless they watched the 2017 Walker Cup matches at LACC, have gotten only rare glimpses of the George Thomas design tweaked more than a decade ago by Gil Hanse.
“It’s a little slice of heaven in this ‘City of Angels,’ ” is how Jon Bodenhamer, chief championship officer of the USGA, describes the place where the U.S. Open will be played in Los Angeles for the first time in 75 years.
Ben Hogan won the first of his four U.S. Opens at nearby Riviera Country Club in 1948, and the national championship has not returned to this city.
Why not?
Blame it on the traffic, but the reality is it just hasn’t happened. It wasn’t until Hanse restored LACC’s former glory in 2010 that the idea of hosting the U.S. Open began to germinate.
When the U.S. Open arrives next month, it will be like an unveiling, not just to the viewing public but to most of the players, few of whom have ever been to LACC.
It will be familiar in many ways: ankle-deep fescue trimming bunkers and areas surrounding many putting surfaces, dangerously quick greens with pin positions squeezed into hidden corners and a 7,421-yard course playing to par 70.
What isn’t familiar are several fairways stretching 50 yards wide or more, constantly rolling terrain that rarely provides a level lie and a layout that has one par-3 that can stretch more than 300 yards (it won’t get quite that long in the U.S. Open) and another that likely will play 85 yards or less during the championship.
There is also a driveable par-4 (the sixth) which might play shorter than the par-3 that follows it. LACC’s North Course also has five par-3s and three par-5s, hardly typical for U.S. Open layouts.
Throw in the fact that only 22,000 daily tickets were sold for the event and it still managed to set U.S. Open records for corporate hospitality and the largest physical build-out in the event’s history.
A spectacle is being created.
This is a place where Lionel Richie’s sprawling home (said to have been previously owned by Cher) sits atop a hill just to the right of the downhill par-3 fourth hole.
“You get out there among the golf holes and the barranca, and it’s a very natural setting in the middle of Los Angeles. It’s just astounding how it fits together.” – Jeff Hall
The massive former home of late TV executive Aaron Spelling, said to be one of the most expensive houses in the country, can be seen through trees on the front nine. It’s on the market again for anyone with $150 million or so.
The famous Playboy Mansion sits just behind a tall hedge row adjacent to the 14th tee. The wild peacocks still can be heard squawking from the menagerie that Hugh Hefner cultivated there, though bunnies no longer call the place home.
Stand on the first tee of what will be a gentle opening par-5 by U.S. Open standards and it’s possible to use the famous Beverly Hilton hotel as an aiming target off the tee.
“You see Century City and downtown L.A., and how can this be? You get out there among the golf holes and the barranca, and it’s a very natural setting in the middle of Los Angeles. It’s just astounding how it fits together,” said Jeff Hall, who will manage course setup for the USGA.
“It’s just different, just very different.”