US OPEN
Inside the ropes at the 2023 US Open: Friday direct from Los Angeles Country Club
We’ll be talking all week to Shawn McMahon, a spotter for NBC Sports and Golf Channel: Beer prices, fast fairways, celebrities and tough rough
The 2023 US Open begins June 15 and will be played at the Los Angeles Country Club for the first time. The world of golf is buzzing with the new LIV-PGA agreement and fans and players alike are looking forward to seeing the unique layout for the third major of the year. We’ll be talking to professional caddie and TV spotter Shawn McMahon for some insight on and off the course in LA this week.
How did it go with your groups on the first day?
It was all good. I spotted for Dylan Wu, Carson Young and Roger Sloan in the morning. Dylan Wu played well and finished at 2-under par. He had it to 3-under early and hung on to keep it respectable with a birdie on 18. He just played smart and never made a big mistake. In the afternoon I was with Spieth Cantlay and Finau. Spieth and Cantlay struggled and Finau finished 2-under par.
I said yesterday that in the rough you could get some good lies or bad lies but with this group I mostly saw bad lies. You could literally be standing inches from a ball in the rough and you couldn’t even see it. It would just disappear. All they could do then is hopefully get it out and put it back in play. But these guys are so good they can get out of trouble with one good shot or putt. There were two hole-in-ones on the short par 3 15th.
What did you think of the course in general?
Thought the course was great and I was really surprised that guys went as low as they did.
Were there any specific holes that got your attention? Easy, hard, beautiful…
The course is beautiful. It’s wide open, but deceivingly so because there is trouble on both sides of the fairway on most holes. No. 6 is a great hole as is 17. The houses around the course are amazing.
What do you expect for Friday? Tough pin placements?
I think Friday will play a little tougher than today but still think the weekend will be the real test. I don’t think the members at LACC are too happy right now seeing their course setting major and US Open records and don’t think the USGA is either. Even though there are two players at 8-under par already I’m predicting a score of 13-under par to be the winner. I’m not sure how they went so low today because you just can’t fire at too many of these flags and the greens aren’t easy.
Any other observations you’d like to share?
The crowds were great and can’t wait to see what happens on the weekend. The par 3s are all great holes and difficult. I saw a lot of good drives trickle into the rough and again think it’s going to get harder and harder everyday moving forward.