2023 US Open: Complete Guide to the Tournament at the Los Angeles Country Club
It's golf major time again. But there's a lot that's new, too.
The USGA will put on its 123rd U.S. Open from Thursday to Sunday at the Los Angeles Country Club, a venue that's never hosted the country's national championship and hasn't been home to a significant event since before the U.S. joined World War II.
The field of 156 players will get started on Thursday with three-man groupings that go as early as 9:45 a.m. ET on holes 1 and 10, while the final trios will go off at 5:27 p.m. ET.
Matthew Fitzpatrick is in the field to defend his title, and Max Homa, who set the course record of 61 during a Pac-12 tournament, is also on the hunt for his second win of the season and his first career major.
It ought to be a memorable week, and the B/R golf team has collected all the information you'll need as you prepare to be immersed from start to finish.
Where to Watch on Television
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The NBC family of networks will provide more than 200 hours of live programming, including prime-time coverage for each of the tournament's four rounds.
NBC, Peacock and USA Network will provide live broadcast coverage Thursday through Sunday, with an after-dark finish (East Coast time) scheduled for the final round.
Peacock will be the primary streaming home for the tournament, including early round coverage, featured groups and featured hole coverage for all four days.
Thursday
9:40 a.m.-1 p.m., Peacock
1-8 p.m., USA Network
8-11 p.m., NBC
Friday
9:40 a.m.-1 p.m., Peacock
1-8 p.m., USA Network
8-11 p.m., NBC
Saturday
1-11 p.m., NBC
Sunday
Noon to 1 p.m., Peacock
1-10 p.m., NBC
Biggest Storylines
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The Merger Heard Round the World...Maybe
Just when it seemed that the would-be merger between LIV and the PGA Tour was enough to break the golfing internet, the needle was ratcheted even further into the red with the announcement that the deal was being investigated by a U.S. Senator.
Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal said concerns over the role the Saudi Arabian government had in the deal prompted the investigation three days before the U.S. Open's initial round.
Brooks Koepka, who defected from the PGA Tour to LIV last year, arrives to Los Angeles as the winner of the most recent major, last month's PGA Championship.
The Golf World Loves LACC...Again
This year's U.S. Open will be the first major tournament ever contested at the Los Angeles Country Club and its first significant event since the Los Angeles Open in 1940.
It's also the first U.S. Open in the Los Angeles media market, which is the second-largest in the country, since the 1948 event was held at Riviera Country Club in the city's Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
More than 20,000 fans are expected to attend.
A Different Kind of Open Course
The 72-hole event will be played on a par-70 setup across a 7,423-yard course that includes five par-3 holes and three par-5 holes, the first arrangement of its kind in U.S. Open history.
No U.S. Open has included five par-3 holes since the St. Louis Country Club in 1947.
Additionally, the par-3 15th hole could play at less than 100 yards depending on the daily setup, which would make it the shortest hole in the tournament's history.
The Top Groupings
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Thursday, 4:32 p.m. ET; Friday, 11:02 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Matt Fitzpatrick, Sam Bennett
What better place to start than with the defending champion?
Fitzpatrick will begin his quest for a repeat title alongside one of his most highly-regarded challengers in Cameron Smith and the reigning U.S. Amateur champ in Sam Bennett.
It's a second U.S. Open and third major for Bennett, who finished tied for 16th at Augusta in April. Smith, meanwhile, was a four-time winner last season, including the Open Championship, before defecting to the LIV tour.
Thursday, 4:54 p.m. ET; Friday, 11:24 a.m. ET
Brooks Koepka, Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy
Speaking of champions and LIV participants, a lot of eyes will be on the group that features reigning PGA champ Brooks Koepka alongside fellow major winners Hideki Matsuyama and Rory McIlroy.
Koepka is a former world No. 1 and a five-time major winner, including consecutive U.S. Opens in 2017 and 2018. McIlroy picked up the first major of his career at the 2011 event and Matsuyama was the top finisher at The Masters in 2021.
No other grouping at the event boasts more majors than the 10 shared here.
Thursday, 11:13 a.m. ET; Friday, 4:43 p.m. ET
Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
Morikawa and Homa are ranked among the world's top-20 players and both are from the Los Angeles arena, which provides them a real chance to do damage this week.
Homa, in fact, shot a 61 to establish the course record at LACC in the 2013 Pac-12 Championship, while Morikawa is looking to follow up on his wins at the 2020 PGA and The Open Championship in 2021.
They'll be playing with the world's No. 1 player in Scheffler, who's won six times in two years and also looks to add another major trophy to the one he won at The Masters in 2022.
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The Top Contenders
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Brooks Koepka
He won the most recent major that's been played, in addition to four others.
And two of those others came at the U.S. Open, where he was the last player to capture the event in consecutive years in 2017 and 2018 and the first since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989.
So there's no reason Koepka, if he's fully healthy, won't be in the mix come Sunday evening.
Jon Rahm
To be Jon Rahm is to be a guy who'll be listed among the favorites in every pre-major tournament story for the foreseeable future.
He's just 28 years old. He's the second-ranked player in the world. And he's already won four tournaments in 2023, including The Masters at Augusta National in April.
His first career major win came at the U.S. Open in 2021 and he was also tied for third in 2019. So if you believe in the alternate-year thing, he's a lock to be on the board.
Rory McIlroy
Just when you may have thought it was time for McIlroy, who turned 34 in May, to start sliding backward as the players in their 20s passed him by...he didn't.
Instead, the Northern Irishman has been a top-10 commodity in six of his 11 starts this season and was a winner at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January.
He's got plenty of U.S. Open street cred, too, thanks to his record-setting win in 2011 where he shot four rounds in the 60s, was atop the leaderboard at the end of all four rounds and lapped the field while stretching his victory margin to eight strokes.
The Dark Horses
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Max Homa
OK, this one surely depends on your definition of dark horse.
Homa is the seventh-ranked player in the world and has seven top-10 finishes in 2023, which means he's a legitimate factor in every tournament he enters. But he's never won a major and has barely been a factor in four U.S. Open appearances.
The wild card? He shot 61 to establish the course record at a college tournament and he was born in nearby Burbank, which means he's among those boasting a home-turf advantage.
Rickie Fowler
It wasn't that long ago that Fowler was a fixture in the favorites section and holder of the "best player without a major" title.
He's skidded to a No. 45 ranking thanks to a winless stretch that goes back to 2019, but he arrives having finished in the top 10 in his last two events and tends to fare well in difficult courses like the one LACC sets up to be.
He was tied for second at the 2014 U.S. Open and tied for fifth three years later, so it shouldn't be too big a shock if he's in a relevant position heading into the final nine holes.
Phil Mickelson
He's won six majors among 68 professional victories across multiple tours, which means Mickelson is as comfortable in high-profile situations as any active player.
He'll turn 53 this week, which is double the age of some of his contemporaries, but a final-round 65 at The Masters got him to second place and proved that he can still handle the most intense of situations.
And lest anyone forget, the U.S. Open is the only major he's never won, so the struggle to better the six second-place finishes he's had at the event is nothing if not real.
The Favorite
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Scottie Scheffler has to be getting used to this.
He assumed the world's No. 1 ranking for the first time the week prior to the 2022 Masters, then proceeded to go out and win the tournament for his first major.
He wound up with three more wins last season and has added another two in 2023, while racking up 10 top-10 finishes across just 13 events.
His consistency has carried over to the majors, where he's been 10th or better in eight of the last 11. And it was a thing at the U.S. Open last year, too, resulting in a second-place end behind Fitzpatrick after he'd led by a shot with 11 holes remaining.
The guess here? If he gets to that point again, he won't give the lead back.
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