As California native Collin Morikawa put it, “it’s just a big-boy golf course.”
Fairways and greens are important no matter what golf course you’re playing, and its cliché to say that’s the key to success, but it’s also true at a place like LACC. With its slight undulations, penal bunkering and Bermuda rough, playing from the short stuff carries a considerable advantage compared to a worse lie closer to the green.
With a pair of record-setting 8-under 62s on Thursday, LACC proved its a gettable course if you’re in position off the tee and dialed with your approach. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just a different sort of U.S. Open test.
MORE: Wide fairways don’t make LACC easy to navigate
“I guess we’re used to that kind of really thick, juicy rough. It’s a little bit different here,” explained Cameron Smith. “I think the Bermuda rough, I think you can get kind of lucky or unlucky. There’s patches out there where they’re actually quite thin and you can get away with kind of a bad shot and other patches where if you’re in there it’s no good at all. I think that’s a little bit different.”
“I think the way you go through the hills there a few times, there’s lots of shots where you almost have to work the ball into the hill,” Smith continued. “It’s a really good challenge. But I think that Bermuda rough is definitely a little bit different. Typically we’re playing in the northeast and get that really dense kind of wet rough.”
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