Where to play golf around Orlando and Central Florida: Golfweek’s Best 2023 public-access courses

Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around Orlando and Central Florida.

Looking for a break from the theme parks around Orlando? Whether you want to stay close or you’re willing to drive a bit, there are several courses available that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in Florida.

But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, which lists Florida courses that might be a full day’s drive away from Central Florida. We wanted to focus on the eight top-ranked courses that, while they might require golfers spend up to 90 minutes in the car, are within reasonable driving distance.

For the purpose of this exercise, we limited driving time to within 90 minutes of Disney World. Why 90 minutes? Because it can take a while to get anywhere around Orlando, especially if you’re stuck on Interstate 4, so 90 minutes seemed like a reasonable amount of time in a car to reach great golf.

And why Walt Disney World Resort? Because chances are if you’re visiting Orlando, you will be bunking up not far from that entertainment giant’s theme parks or Universal Orlando nearby.

We used Google Maps for its drive times, keying in Walt Disney World Resort at a time with no significant traffic slowdowns. Take all drive times around Orlando and Central Florida with a grain of salt, of course, as backups frequently happen.

None of this is to say there aren’t plenty of other worthy places to play around Orlando. As a nearby resident, this author will attest to the simple pleasures to be found at Winter Park Golf Course – frequently called WP9 – just north of downtown Orlando. The short nine-holer is one of the most fun two hours you’re likely to spend on a golf course.

Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.

Included with each course is its position in Florida on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.

A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

Orlando map where to play 2023
(Google Earth/Golfweek)

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Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner restore Olympic Club’s Lake Course to historical glory

Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner looked to the past to set up Olympic Club for the future.

SAN FRANCISCO – From the first tee to the 18th green, golfers will notice plenty of differences on the recently renovated Lake Course at the Olympic Club, a layout that already had seen plenty of changes since it was first designed in 1924.

In 2020, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner were hired to renovate the Lake Course, which has several top-tier professional and amateur events scheduled for coming years. The layout ranked No. 8 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 ranking of top private courses in California, and it was No. 44 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of all classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

As they did at several other major championship courses including 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, Hanse and Wagner planned for the future by studying the past.

Hanse Design associate Tommy Naccarato said that meant researching old aerial photos from the 1920s and ‘30s as well as Spring Valley Water Company’s plans. That allowed the team to identify fairway bunkers that had been abandoned over the decades, and the historic research also provided clues on fairway widths, approaches and green surrounds.

Olympic Club Lake Course
The Spring Valley Water Company’s historical plans show the routing of the the Lake Course at Olympic Club. (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)

Ultimately the Hanse plan would call for the reintroduction of fairway bunkers on Nos. 4, 9, 14, 16, 17 and 18. Other refinements included the expansion of greens by roughly 33 percent to provide more pinnable space, widening fairways by roughly 25 percent to better fit the land, expanding approaches to greens to offer more ground-game options and converting numerous green surrounds from fairway to rough for consistency course-wide.

The final piece of the plan was the creation of a new seventh hole to better connect Nos. 6 and 8 after the 2009 shifting of the tees on No. 8. The new No. 7 remains an uphill and drivable par 4, but the green was shifted down a hill to the right. The tee shot offers numerous options, the best of which come when players challenge a new fairway bunker about 50 yards from the green, Hanse said via zoom at a September reopening event.

Olympic Club Lake Course
The land for the new No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)

Players can notice the differences from the first tee shot, where the removal of dense shrubs between the first tee and second green has opened a view across the property and down to Lake Merced, all the way to the 18th, where fairway bunkers were added and the green was expanded.

All told, the refinements have provided the Lake Course with a more consistent Golden Age look and feel as well as improved playability for day-to-day play.

The Lake Course offers a rich history that Hanse and Wagner were able to tap into. William Watson and Sam Whiting designed the first version of the Lake in 1924, but storm damage led to a Whiting redesign in 1927.

Starting in 1955 the Lake Course became a familiar home to USGA championships, hosting U.S. Opens in 1955, ‘66,  ‘87, ‘98 and 2012. It also hosted the U.S. Amateur in 1958, ‘81, and 2007, as well as the U.S. Women’s Open in 2021.

Throughout its championship history, plenty of work was done to the course while leaving the routing intact. Before the 1955 U.S. Open, architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. toughened the course. In 2009 the uphill par-3 eighth hole was shifted to the north and the greens were converted from poa to bent grass. And in 2016 a bunker renovation was executed under the direction of Bill Love.

Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 1 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 1 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco after the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)

The course played beautifully during a media event thanks to the work of director of grounds Troy Flanagan and his team that worked closely with Hanse’s team, including shaper Shaymus Maley who was on site every day throughout the project.

“Tapping into his knowledge and enthusiasm allowed us to do a better job and be much more responsive on how the golf course plays,” Hanse said of Flanagan. “I can’t think of better greens I’ve played on for an opening day.”

The praise of the course was music to the ears of Olympic Club president Jim Murphy, who led the club through what is always a nervous time for a membership.

“First there was uncertainty, then there was anticipation and now there is jubilation,” Murphy said of his members’ response to Hanse and Wagner’s work.

Those sentiments were echoed by longtime Golfweek’s Best rater and Olympic Club member Pat Murphy, who said, “I’ve been a member of the Olympic Club for 65 years, and previously served as green chair, on the board and as vice president. I feel this renovation has done a great job of honoring our past and positioning us for the future. The golf course is as beautiful, fun and engaging as it has ever been in all my years.”

Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Olympic Club Lake Course
No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco after the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)

There is no doubt the course refinements will be embraced by the membership, but perhaps the bigger question is how will the course play in championships. The Lake Course is set to host the 2025 U.S. Amateur, 2028 PGA Championship, 2030 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 2033 Ryder Cup.

The amateur events and the Ryder Cup should be able to tee off while maintaining the added fairway width thanks to their match-play formats. It will be interesting to see how chief championships officer Kerry Haigh and the PGA of America prepare the course for the 2028 PGA Championship, for which conventional wisdom would suggest the narrowing of fairways to add challenge. But a potential ball rollback, more hole locations from which to choose and more rough around the greens may see them embrace the added width – we can only hope.

Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner to redesign Links at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach Resorts

Two of the hottest designers in golf will rework one of the main layouts at Pebble Beach Resorts.

Pebble Beach Company has hired the team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to redesign The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California.

Opened in 1987, the original layout was designed by the trio of architects Robert Trent Jones Jr., former USGA president Sandy Tatum and PGA Tour player Tom Watson. Situated between the Inn at Spanish Bay and the Pacific Ocean, the course was built on the site of a former sand mine with ocean views on nearly every hole.

Hanse and Wagner have become one of the most in-demand architecture teams in recent years, with original designs such as Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia and the Black Course at Streamsong in Florida. They also have completed historic restorations to many highly ranked courses including Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open.

MORE: 10 U.S. destinations with three or more top resort courses

Links at Spanish Bay (pre reno)
The Links at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach Resorts in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach Company)

Details on the timing of the renovation were not included in a media release announcing the news.

“The Links at Spanish Bay possesses nearly every raw element you’d want in a golf course, from expansive ocean views to rolling, sandy terrain,” Hanse said in the media release. “With these natural attributes already in place, our team will have a significant head start on delivering a final product that will be in the top echelon of ‘must-play’ courses.”

The Links at Spanish Bay tied for No. 198 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 ranking of top modern courses built since 1960 in the U.S. It tied for No. 8 among all public-access courses in California, and it tied for No. 55 the list of top resort courses in the U.S.

Pebble Beach Company also operates Pebble Beach Golf Links, which ranks No. 10 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S., and Spyglass Hill, which tied for 26th on the list of top modern courses in the U.S. The company’s Pebble Beach Resorts also operates Del Monte Golf Course and The Hay, a par-3 course designed by Tiger Woods.

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Photos: Ballyshear Golf Links in Thailand incorporates classic template holes of original Lido

Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner sought classic inspiration when building Ballyshear Golf Links near Bangkok.

SAMUT PRAKAN, Thailand – There’s been a lot of Lido talk in recent years in golf architecture circles. A new Lido opened this summer at Sand Valley in Wisconsin, attempting to recreate in great detail the original Lido course that was built in 1915 on Long Island, New York, with a design by C.B. Macdonald – that course was closed during World War II.

But Sand Valley’s rendition isn’t the only one.

Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club just east of Bangkok opened in 2021, and like its cousin in Wisconsin, this Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner design attempts to recreate many of the holes from the original Lido, sometimes in principle and at other times in detail.

Photos: Lido at Sand Valley

At Ballyshear, Hanse and Wagner put into play many of the template holes established by Macdonald at the original Lido and beyond. The Eden, Channel, Alps, Short and Redan – each of those template holes and more are there to be played in Thailand. Such holes present shot values and demands identified by Macdonald that are now in play around the world, many of them borrowed from classic links courses. These holes are immediately recognizable to golf architecture buffs.

Ballyshear Golf Links
The back nine of Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club near Bangkok, Thailand (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

Ballyshear was built on the site of the former Kiarti Thanee Country Club on a flat piece of land less than half an hour’s drive from Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The former course on the property featured tree-lined fairways and was often wet, as land in this area outside Bangkok is often inundated during heavy rains – the property is surrounded by rice fields.

Hanse and Wagner – the team behind several restorations of top classic courses, including Los Angeles Country Club before the 2023 U.S. Open – removed the trees, shaping the land into an open parcel more reminiscent of a classic links course. Much better drainage was installed, and a fair amount of engineering was necessary to create frequently rolling terrain that would hold up in the area’s climate.

That’s important, because the course needs to play relatively firm and fast to get the most of the template holes, their designs having been established on links ground and the best of them playing across sandy conditions. The ball needs to roll to make the most of such holes.

The private Ballyshear was covered with a local zoysia grass that does, indeed, play relatively firm and fast, especially in comparison to most other courses in Southeast Asia. A well-traveled player won’t confuse the conditions with those found on the links of Scotland or Ireland, but the ball does want to roll out a fair bit at Ballyshear, bringing the ground game into play.

Using the Lido templates was an intriguing idea for the Ballyshear site, as the land was flat to begin with. The original Lido was created by dredging a saltwater expanse and piling up the land until it was dry, then establishing interesting contours. Hanse and Wagner were able to do the same in Thailand. The use of the template holes from the Lido expanded on that theme.

The best part of Ballyshear: the shaping of the greens. Hanse and Wagner built some tremendous swales, valleys and ridges into these greens, many of them utilizing the traditional template greens. The putting speeds of the zoysia greens at Ballyshear will likely never be too fast, allowing the slopes to serve their purposes without getting out of hand. In that regard, they play much more like classic greens would have decades ago before the pursuit of speed rendered some classic slopes unplayable.

In all, Ballyshear (par 71, 6,690 yards) makes for a very different experience than found in much of Thailand, which has rapidly expanded as a golf destination in recent decades. From the low-slung, unobtrusive and perfectly comfortable clubhouse to all the nods at classic design, it’s a beautiful place to spend a day chasing a bouncing golf ball.

Check out a selection of photos from my recent trip to Thailand that included a stop at Ballyshear below.

Photos: Fields Ranch East course by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner has opened at Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Texas

Check out the photos of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s latest course creation.

Much attention has been paid to the design duo of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in recent years for their work restoring multiple host sites of major championships, and rightfully so. Los Angeles Country Club, The Country Club, Winged Foot, Southern Hills and more have hosted majors after the designers lent their expertise in putting the courses back into the shapes intended by their original architects.

But what about Hanse and Wagner’s original work? They can bring the heat to their own designs, too, and that is on full display with the Fields Ranch East course at Omni PGA Frisco Resort near Dallas, the new home of the PGA of America.

The East recently opened to public play shortly after hosting the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (won by Steve Stricker), the first of dozens of top-tier events scheduled to be played there.

Playing as long as 7,863 yards with a par of 72, the East is part of a new complex that includes a resort, meeting spaces, dining, shopping, a lit par-3 course, a massive putting green and plenty of ways to practice. It sits alongside the West, a course designed by Beau Welling.

Check out photos of the East below, most of them shot by noted course photographer Evan Schiller and the others courtesy of the resort. And click here to see photos of the West.

LACC members weren’t the only ones alarmed by the record-low scoring at the 2023 U.S. Open. Oakmont members are too

Architect Gil Hanse is leading a historic renovation of Oakmont.

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LOS ANGELES – The members at Los Angeles Country Club weren’t the only ones expressing great concern that competitors in the 156-man field of the 123rd U.S. Open picked apart the famed George C. Thomas Jr., layout to the tune of a record three scores of 63 or better, the first pair of 62s in championship history and the lowest cumulative scoring average in U.S. Open history (71.76).

So, too, were the members at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The club, which ranks sixth in Golfweek’s 2023 Best Classic Courses list, is scheduled to host a record 10th U.S. Open in 2025. But in advance of staging its latest major, architect Gil Hanse, the same designer who returned LACC to its former glory, will be doing a historic renovation at Oakmont, which commenced in April on the front nine, and it has some members alarmed that one of golf’s architectural originals doesn’t lose its steel.

Founder H.C. Fownes built Oakmont to be as hard as the iron that came out of its nearby foundry. His son, W.C., believed that a shot poorly played should be irrevocably lost, and his crime and punishment philosophy led to hundreds of bunkers on the property.

Oakmont
The “church pew” bunkers at Oakmont Country Club. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Oakmont’s fairways are most famously squeezed by the Church Pew bunkers that guard Nos. 3 and 4 as well as drainage ditches that dot the property at holes such as Nos. 9, 11, 12 and 18. The key to having a chance at a course defined and defended by its greens is to find the fairways.

The fairways at LACC featured some of the widest in U.S. Open history. Champion Wyndham Clark hit a big cut at 18 that still managed to find the short grass at a 56-yard wide fairway that was as welcoming as the runway at LAX. It was a far cry from the typical U.S. Open where competitors have been known to have to walk single file because the fairways are so narrow.

File it under rumblings and grumblings but with several national championships on the horizon, including the U.S. Open in two years, Oakmont members were texting their concern that Hanse’s alterations – which include expanding greens to their original size and deterring long bombers from playing down adjacent holes – might make Oakmont similarly susceptible to lower scoring.

Speaking about how LACC held up against the best golfers in the world in its U.S. Open debut and what could be done to toughen it up for its return engagement in 2039, Southern California native Collin Morikawa said, “Maybe the easy holes are a little too easy out here, and that’s weird to say, but maybe fairways need to be brought in a little bit.”

With the backing of longtime Oakmont pro (now retired) Bob Ford, Hanse was called in to do a restoration plan to widen fairways and shallow fairway bunkers. Hanse and LACC have members scared that venerable Oakmont could be made vulnerable. Members didn’t like seeing fairways more than 35-yards wide given the length players can bash it these days and how the pros attacked LACC, especially on Thursday, where soft conditions and barely a breath of wind led to a birdie barrage.

Last year, Oakmont was selected as an anchor site for future USGA championships including four U.S. Opens between 2025 and 2049, two U.S. Women’s Opens, a U.S. Amateur and a Walker Cup.

Oakmont members pride themselves on having to slow the greens down for hosting a major and love to boast that it could be ready to host the U.S. Open on two weeks’ notice – the time it takes to grow the rough.

Oakmont went through a radical change during the early 2000s when it underwent a secret tree removal program that peeled away trees and restored strategic options. Hanse’s master plan is considered the next step in maintaining the founder’s vision for Oakmont.

The 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont would likely be the last national championship contested before a potential rollback of the golf ball – still to be approved – would be instituted. One school of thought would say this is just armchair architects making something out of nothing. Oakmont likely will remain a beast, and Hanse’s batting average at restoring the classics is strong to very strong. Here’s hoping the architectural inland links built on 190 acres of rugged farmland will remain as tough as nails for the pros in two years’ time.

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Golfweek’s Best 2023: Top 200 Modern Courses in the U.S.

Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits and more.

Want to play the great modern golf courses in the U.S.? From Hawaii to Boston, we have you covered. So welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.

Each year we publish many lists, with this Top 200 Modern Courses list among the premium offerings. Also extremely popular and significant are the lists for Top 200 Classic Courses 2023, the public-access Best Courses You Can Play in each state and Best Private Courses in each state.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.

To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.

Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.

There’s one course of particular note this year. Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, debuts the highest of the courses new to this list, climbing into a tie for 26th. Designed by Tad King and Rob Collins, Landmand opened in 2022. It and the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes are the only courses to have opened since 2020 to rank among the top 200.

Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, then the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2022.

After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:

  • p: private
  • d: daily fee
  • r: resort course
  • t: tour course
  • u: university
  • m: municipal
  • re: real estate
  • c: casino

* Indicates new to or returning to this list.

More Golfweek’s Best for 2023:

2023 U.S. Open: Extremely wide fairways don’t necessarily make Los Angeles Country Club any easier to navigate

Strategy is key at LACC, as players must aim for precise targets within giant fairways to set up the best angles.

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The fairways at this year’s U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club’s North course will be much wider than normally seen in the national championship. Don’t let that fool you into thinking they necessarily will be easier to hit – at least in the proper spots.

Designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and opened in 1928, LACC’s North Course was restored in 2010 by a team led by Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford. They removed stands of trees that lined fairways and reintroduced width as Thomas intended on the rolling property that features several gnarly barrancas near Beverly Hills. The layout ranks No. 2 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in each state, and it is No. 14 among all classic courses in the U.S.

Several of the fairways on the North Course are 50 to 60 yards wide in places, much wider than the normal corridors implemented by the U.S. Golf Association in many past championships. Some past U.S. Open courses have featured fairways an average of about 25 yards wide, often with prime spots less than 20 yards wide and surrounded by thick rough.

Width is a golf architect’s dream, as it promotes strategic play. Golfers must play to certain areas in the fairways to set up the best angles of attack, and the greater the width of the fairway, the more that smart players can take advantage. Such design creates interest and requires thought, tempting players to aim for the edges of wide fairways instead of just carelessly blasting drivers down the middle.

LACC North has plenty of width, to be sure, with some fairways pinching just a bit the farther a player hits a tee ball. But don’t confuse it with mindlessly bashing balls on a driving range. Thomas took advantage of the natural features to make these fairways play much skinnier than they look, and the USGA can’t wait to show off how LACC plays.

“What the architect George C. Thomas intended on this masterpiece, we will leave intact,” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championship officer, said during a recent media event at LACC. “Sure, we’ll come in and we’ll narrow up a few fairways. We’ll play the greens a little bit more speedier than the members would. And we’ll set a few difficult hole locations. We’ll put a little bit of a U.S. Open feel to it. But we will deliver what George C. Thomas intended to be at Los Angeles Country Club.”

Los Angeles Country Club StrackaLine
The StrackaLine yardage book for Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course shows the fifth hole to be fairly straight in general, but the contour lines and arrows pointing right in the landing zone some 300 yards off the tee indicate the steepness of the landing area. Players must try to keep their tee shots in the left portion of the fairway to set up the best approach to the green. (Courtesy of StrackaLine)

The best areas in the fairways from which to play an approach are often the high spots to one side, nearest thick Bermuda grass that the USGA and the club has allowed to grow to three or four inches in height. Early reports and videos from LACC this week have shown balls being dropped into the rough and almost disappearing – it’s a bit of a cliché to show such videos on social media, but cliché or not, it’s hard to hit long irons out of such salad. Players have had to scramble to find balls in the rough during practice rounds without the help of tournament volunteers.

Bermuda rough, known for its thickness and the difficulty it presents, is rare in a U.S. Open. The last Open course to use Bermuda was Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014, but that layout relied on sand and scrubby native areas instead of thick rough. This year the rough is much more in the normal style of a U.S. Open than at Pinehurst. Bodenhamer said succinctly, “The rough will be difficult.”

More: U.S. Open leaderboard, hole-by-hole tour

Throw in the extremely rolling terrain, with tee shots on many holes kicking down large hills, and it will be difficult for players to hit the high spots and keep a ball there. Anything that misses toward the center of the fairway will roll speedily downhill, presenting a less-than-perfect approach angle, often from a blind spot in the fairway. Anything that misses too close to the rough is likely to bounce into tall Bermuda grass. Players must be precise, both in hitting the line and spinning the ball one direction or another to keep it there with a driver or fairway wood.

“If we get the conditions we hope for and the weather cooperates, and we get bounciness and firm and fast conditions, we think the best players in the world will rise to the top,” Bodenhamer said. “Because the greatest players control their golf ball not only when it’s in the air, but also when it hits the ground. And when it hits the ground here on this golf course, it goes all over the place.”

The application of width extends all the way to some green sites that feature chipping areas and runoffs at fairway height. Players will sometimes be forced to blast pitches out of patches of the tall stuff, while other times they will be forced to employ a delicate touch from short grass. It likely will be a common refrain about players in contention that they are missing in the right spots, meaning they retain some control over their recovery shots instead of watching haplessly as balls roll away from greens into the worst of the trouble.

“You will see a U.S. Open that is wider than most U.S. Opens. What I mean by that, you will see 50- and 60-yard-wide fairways, George Thomas style. … You’ll see balls bouncing around greens and fairways, getting caught up in rough. You’ll see it all here at LACC. And we will stay true to what the architect intended.”

Bodenhamer, who joined the USGA in 2011 and has played high-level amateur golf, gave several examples of holes where wide fairways don’t necessarily mean large targets.

“You’ll see No. 5 will be about 50 yards wide, but with the (left-to-right) cant of the fairway, you better hit a right-to-left shot into it or it won’t stay in the fairway,” he said. “No. 13 may be one of the widest fairways in U.S. Open history, but if you don’t hit it into a little 20-yard swath up the left side, you’re going to be down below on the right side, blind up to the 524-yard par 4. It will be difficult.”

Los Angeles Country Club StrackaLine
The StrackaLine yardage book for No. 13 at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course utilizes contour lines and arrows pointing to the right to indicate the steepness of the fairway in the landing area. Players who manage to hit the fairway only to see it roll down the hill will face a long, uphill and blind shot to a difficult green. The hole is marked as 507 yards for the U.S. Open, but the USGA can stretch it even longer than that.  (Courtesy of StrackaLine)

Another note on the rough this year: It will all be nasty. In recent years the USGA has frequently employed a strip of less-tall intermediate rough between the fairway cut and the thickest grass, allowing some measure of relief for players who barely miss or land a ball in a fairway only to see it trickle into the rough. Bodenhamer said that at LACC, there will be no intermediate cut. When it comes to hitting the fairways, it will be all or nothing.

“We want players to get every club in their bag dirty, to hit it high, to hit it low,” Bodenhamer said. “Work it left to right, right to left. Bunkers, pitch shots, mental and physical resolve. And yes it’s tough. We will set it up tough. But when you get to the mountaintop of winning a U.S. Open, you will have achieved something special.”

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U.S. Open 2023: Check the yardage book for Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course

Check out StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole course guide and maps for the North Course at Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open.

Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, site of the 2023 U.S. Open, was designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and opened in 1928. It was restored by the team of Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford in 2010.

Situated on a terrific piece of rolling ground and serving as an urban oasis off the busy Wilshire Boulevard, the North Course will play to 7,421 yards with a par of 70 for the U.S. Open. The course features three par 5s and five par 3s, with two of the downhill par 3s playing longer than 280 yards.

Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course ranks No. 2 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of top private clubs in each state, and it is No. 14 on Golfweek’s Best list of top classic courses built in the United States before 1960.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week in Los Angeles. (Because of variations with the USGA’s setup for the Open, the yardages provided below are not always the same as will be played in the Open.)

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2023 U.S. Open: Los Angeles Country Club in photos, hole by hole

See photos of each hole for this year’s U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course.

Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course won’t play like most other U.S. Open host sites. Designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and opened in 1928, then restored in 2010, LACC will offer wider fairways with a greater emphasis on strategy than many recent Open courses.

The team of Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner, Geoff Shackelford and several top assistants cleared out loads of trees during that 2010 restoration, allowing the course to play as Thomas intended. That means players must be on the proper side of a given fairway to attack flags on various portions of the greens – even a good swing from the wrong angle can result in a missed green.

Many holes feature greens with bunkers carved into the putting surface – it’s entirely possible to have to pitch from a putting surface, over a bunker and back onto a green, or to have to putt around the trap and accept your fate.

And don’t consider all that width off the tee to be necessarily easy. Many of the fairways feature dramatic slopes, forcing players to consider accuracy to a preferred high spot in the fairway over raw distance that might result in a steep approach shot.

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Take a look at photos of all 18 holes below, with a brief description of each for the 2023 U.S. Open.