“Different from what you expect from a golf course in Los Angeles”

For much of Collin Morikawa’s life, the Los Angeles Country Club was a mystery.

The track, designed in 1921 by George C. Thomas Jr. with its North Course restored by the architect Gil Hanse in 2010, it was off limits to most – even Morikawa, a son of Southern California and one of the most promising golfers.

But entering this week’s US Open, he is one of the few professionals with meaningful experience at the club, who has not hosted a PGA Tour event since 1940 and has never been in the spotlight of a major tournament. The most recent high-profile competition was the 2017 Walker Cup, an amateur team event held every two years. The United States won that year with a team consisting of Scottie Scheffler and Morikawa, who first got to play the course when he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s demanding – it’s very different from what you expect from a Los Angeles golf course,” Morikawa said in an interview. “The grasses are very different. The west coast is known for Kikuyu grass and very sticky poa annua greens, bumpy greens in the afternoon. That’s not what Los Angeles Country Club is.”

Instead, players will encounter a course of Bermuda grass, with bent grass on greens that Morikawa sees as PGA Tour-esque for their slopes and designs. This year’s Open includes five par-3 holes for the first time since 1947, when Lew Worsham beat Sam Snead in an 18-hole playoff at St. Louis Country Club.

Morikawa doesn’t see that as a problem.

“Just because there’s a lot of focus on par-3s at LACC doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a great championship golf course,” he said.

number 6

Par 4, 330 yards

The club’s first five holes are challenging, but in Morikawa’s mind, the course only at No. 6 offers a formidable combination of risk and reward. To the field it will appear to be a very controllable par-4, even with a blind tee.

But if the greens are as wild as the United States Golf Association hopes, good luck. The depth of the green requires perfect distance control, Morikawa said. The ideal landing zone is maybe five yards in diameter and a bad bounce sends the ball into the long rough.

“Let’s say it’s 295,300 meters,” he said. “From that distance, nobody is accurate enough to hit any disc within five meters in diameter.” Instead, he said he expects players to lay out, often somewhere between 215 and 240 yards, leaving enough room for the green to test their wedge games. (Morikawa said this week that his caddy persuaded him to go for it instead of quitting.)

“When you get to six, you think birdie,” he said. “But you will see a lot of bogeys because of the difficulty of the strategy.”

Numbers 6 and 8 — a 547-yard par-5 hole — in Los Angeles, he said, could be like the second and third holes of Augusta National Golf Club, where players eagerly seek the low scores up for grabs lie.

“You want to be under par, you have to play smart and you can’t be too aggressive,” he said.

No. 9

Par 3, 171 yards

Few ninth holes are par-3s — the last U.S. Open with a par-3 at No. 9 was the 2017 edition at Erin Hills, Wisconsin — but the trek back to the clubhouse includes one Morikawa has labeled “fraudulent” .

A backpin may be only 200 yards away, but Morikawa warned that the challenge comes from the slope of the green.

“With fast greens, if you’re behind the hole, you’re hoping for a two-putt par,” he said. Excessive aggression could very well land a player and his ball in the bunker ready for a bogey.

“For the most part, you’ll be putting from the center of the green,” Morikawa said. “You’re going to take four pars and walk out of there very, very happy.”

No. 11

Par 3, 290 yards

Leave the distractions, at least on a clear day, of the Los Angeles skyline and head downhill, the longest par-3 on the course. Thanks to his height, Morikawa thinks he will play somewhere between 200 and 270 meters.

“It gets tricky because you have to land it in the right spot,” said Morikawa, who predicted that some in the field might see their tee shots land 15 yards off the green and end up facing a 30- or 40-yard throw shot.

“If you miss him to the left, he’ll walk away,” he said of the hole, where the front of the green has a slope that can cause headaches if a player is too aggressive toward a back pin. “If you miss it well, it’s going to run away.”

Although the hole is formally a par-3, Morikawa predicted at least some high scores due to its length.

No. 13

Par 4, 507 yards

When Morikawa envisions a typical par-4 hole at a US Open, he envisions number 13: “Long, demanding. You get a long iron, the tee box is miles from the 12th green.

OK, maybe not miles, but it can feel that way after 12 holes of championship golf.

And just about everyone — long hitters, short hitters, guys in between — will have to hold their left turn.

“Long hitters who hit it right will kick down the ramp right into the right rough,” Morikawa said, describing the dangers for much of the modern open field. In Los Angeles, the challenge with the right rough is that it almost forces the player to take a second shot in low visibility.

A bad drive, Morikawa said, may require a 5-wood.

He expects lots of ups and downs, and lag putt after lag putt, during a test with many corners along the way.

“It’s a very long gap, but the green in regulation percentage won’t be there,” he said.

No. 14

Par 5, 623 yards

The only par-5 hole on the back nine, No. 14, first requires players to decide if they want to try carrying the correct bunker. Even with the distances pros run from the tee, there will only be a handful who can carry the bunker and dare to try it, knowing that they need a run of about 300 yards.

Going left, Morikawa said, will leave a player farther from the hole — and “it’s not the easiest layup because the fairways will be so narrow.” Getting stuck in the rough for a third shot, he said, can be especially tricky when a right pin is in play for a day because of the slope of the green.

“No. 14 is going to take a lot of precision,” Morikawa said. “With 14, if you’re a long hitter, you can go for it, push it up, get a nice little wedge shot, and make a birdie.”

There will be what Morikawa classifies as “stupid bogeys” as the hole is a par-5, ending a four-hole stretch where he feels the Open will not be won, but can be lost.

“I think I’ll be pretty happy when I get out of those holes all week, even par,” he said.