With the third men’s Major of the year fast approaching, Los Angeles Country Club (LACC) prepares to open its doors to the world’s best players. The historic Beverly Hills private club was founded over 126 years ago in 1897 and, despite maintaining its position as one of America’s premier golf courses, has largely remained cut off from the outside world.
The 123rd US Open this week will be the first time that the club has hosted a Major championship, having first opened discussions with the USGA to do so in 2014. However, LACC does have a storied history of hosting several other famous golf tournaments. It was, after all, the site for the very first Los Angeles Open, now known as the Genesis Invitational.
Hosting the first edition in 1926, the tournament returned to the club on four other occasions: 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1940. Then, 14 years later, the club hosted the US Junior Amateur Golf Championship in 1954, but it would be over 60 years before LACC would host another major golf tournament.
That ended in 2017 when the club was the site of the 2017 Walker Cup, contested between the top amateurs from America against Great Britain and Ireland. On that occasion, America ran out comprehensive 19-7 victors, with the US team at the time made up of current stars including World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, two-time Major champion Collin Morikawa, as well as high ranking PGA Tour stars like Will Zalatoris and Maverick McNealy.
The European team also featured notable names such as 2022 Italian Open champion Robert MacIntyre and DP World Tour regulars Connor Syme, Matthew Jordan and Jack Singh Brar.
Alongside these events, the club has also hosted a number of college golf tournaments, perhaps most notably the Pac-12 Championship in 2013. It was at that tournament that current World No. 7 and six-time PGA Tour winner, Max Homa, set the LACC course record.
The former University of California golfer and Los Angeles native shot a nine-under-par 61 to set a course record that remains to this day. Given the current conditions of the course this week, the American will do well to match such a feat in what promises to be an intriguing affair on America’s west coast.
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick will be tasked with defending the title that he won at the Country Club in Brookline last year, but will face a tall order against a stacked 156-man field.
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