The 2022-23 season had 47 tournaments that were contested over 50 golf courses in eight different countries. Now that the season has concluded, the stats gurus at the PGA Tour have calculated the numbers to determine which ones were the most difficult.
Of those 50 courses, five had an average score of more than one stroke over par per round. Just one course was over par two strokes per round. Sixteen of the 49 had an over-par average. TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, a par 71, had the average score closest to par at 70.98.
The golf courses which hosted the 2023 major championships check in at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 on the list of most difficult venues.
What course proved to be the most difficult? What about the easiest golf courses? Check out this list below. Stats courtesy pgatour.com.
The U.S. Women’s Open is reaching parity with men’s majors when it comes to host courses.
This is a special year as elite women golfers have the chance to experience two great courses for major championships in the United States: Baltusrol’s Lower Course for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Pebble Beach Golf Links for the U.S. Women’s Open.
That’s back-to-back majors on two major-worthy layouts over the span of three weeks in June and July, with the Women’s Open slated this week.
It wasn’t always this way. Women’s major championships have a checkered history of course selections.
The U.S. Women’s Open, for example, for decades was played for the most part on a slate of courses that in no way measured up to the layouts on which men’s majors were contested. In most years, with only a sprinkling of exceptions, the greatest women players in the game played less-than-stellar courses – many host sites were solid regional or local tracks, but world-beaters they were not.
Things began to change in the mid-1980s, as the Women’s Open moved with greater frequency to courses ranked among the top 200 in Golfweek’s Best rankings of either classic (built before 1960) or modern (built in or after 1960) layouts. Women’s Open course selection peaked in 1992 at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, which hosted the event again in 2010.
As measured by average rating, course selection has continued to improve over the past 20 years. Golfweek’s Best utilizes more than 800 raters who evaluate courses according to 10 criteria and then offer an overall rating of 1 to 10. Their votes are averaged to compile various course rankings lists, including the modern and classic lists. In general, any course rated above 6 would be considered by most players to be a nice local or regional course, and in most cases a course rated above 7 would be worth traveling some distance to play. A layout scoring higher than 8 is among the top 60 or so courses in the world, and only seven courses in the world rank above 9 points – Oakmont is among those seven.
The average rating of the host courses for the U.S. Women’s Open has improved in each of the past three decades. For the period of 1993-2002, the average (using the 2022 Golfweek’s Best ratings for data) was 6.924. It improved to 7.100 in 2003-2012, and it climbed a bit more to 7.195 for the 10 Women’s Opens of 2013-2022. Compare that to the average of 6.277 from 1973-1982.
And course selection only continues to improve. Starting this year with Pebble Beach (using the 2023 Golfweek’s Best ratings for data), the lineup of announced sites for the U.S. Women’s Open scores an average rating of 8.36 among Golfweek’s Best raters. That’s in line with men’s championships and a far cry from the days when the Women’s Open might be played on a course that hardly anyone in the next state over had ever heard of.
Each of the sites announced to host future Women’s Opens is ranked inside the top 100 Golfweek’s Best modern or classic courses in the U.S. Three of the sites – Oakmont (No. 6 in the 2023 ranking of classic courses), Merion’s East Course (No. 7) and Pebble Beach Golf Links (No. 10) – rank among the top 10 classic courses in the United States. Another four – Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course (No. 14 in the 2023 rankings), Pinehurst No. 2 (No. 17), Riviera (No. 18) and Oakland Hills’ South Course (tied for No. 22) – rank among the top 25.
It’s been a long wait for course selection for the premium women’s golf event to catch up with that of the men, but things are certainly headed in the right direction.
An executive with the USGA defended McIlroy, as well as the veteran official who gave the ruling.
It’s been just more than a week since Rory McIlroy lost the 2023 U.S. Open to Wyndham Clark by one shot after he made a crucial bogey on the par 5 14th hole, his lone blemish of the final round.
And if you can think back to Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club, you’ll remember McIlroy got a favorable ruling from an embedded lie that allowed him to drop in the bunker to only make bogey to remain in contention.
On Monday, an executive with the United States Golf Association told Sports Illustrated that McIlroy took an incorrect drop after consulting with a veteran rules official.
“The nearest point of relief was mis-identified; it should have been directly behind the ball,” said the USGA’s chief governance officer, Thomas Pagel. “If there’s no area immediately behind the ball, you go to nearest point in the general area. But if you look at where the ball was embedded, there was a grassy area below and that should have been the starting point.”
Rory McIlroy gets relief from an embedded ball on the 14th green during the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open Championship at The Los Angeles Country Club on June 18, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
McIlroy’s third shot to the 14th green got caught in thick grass surrounding a greenside bunker, and after a short search his playing partner, Scottie Scheffler, found the ball. Rules official Courtney Myrhum, who has officiated more than 60 USGA championships, confirmed the ball was embedded and allowed McIlroy to take a free drop.
“His ball was 100 percent embedded,” Pagel said in agreement with the official. “And an embedded ball not in sand is entitled to relief. Now Rory did everything at the discretion of the referee. In her discretion, her judgment was that the reference point for relief was to the side of the ball. And from a ruling standpoint, that’s the end of the story.”
Pagel continued to defend Myrhum, noting how “she’s an extremely well-qualified referee and she did everything in her judgment where to operate the drop. However, after further review, it was determined that there was a spot in the general area immediately behind the ball that was the reference point for relief.”
Because there was space between the ball and the bunker, McIlroy was entitled to a one-club length drop, no closer to the hole, from the “the general area” of the embedded spot, meaning a drop from the bunker was incorrect.
“If you look at where the ball embedded, just below should have been the starting point (for taking one club length relief),” Pagel said. “But even if his club length had been measured from behind the ball, he still would have been dropping on the shelf from where he played from. As it was, he measured the club length from the top of the wall to the right. As he dropped the ball out of that area, he had to drop a second time.”
“When you start dealing with vertical faces, that’s where the question is,” Pagel added. “In this case, there was a lot going on. But there was a place behind the ball where he could have started to measure.”
“From where he started measuring from, he didn’t get a break. And he did all of this at the discretion of the referee. He wasn’t doing anything to gain an advantage and as he was told how to apply the rule on where to drop.”
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.
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.
Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more.
Are you a big fan of Golden Age golf architecture? You’re in the right spot. Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses opened before 1960 in the United States.
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.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, 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:
LOS ANGELES – By his own admission, Rickie Fowler just didn’t have it today.
Fowler set a championship record with an opening-round 8-under 62 at the 2023 U.S. Open and held at least a share of the lead until Sunday afternoon at Los Angeles Country Club. With a long-awaited first major championship just ahead on the horizon, the California native was chasing a historic win less than 100 miles from his hometown. He found himself in the final pairing alongside eventual champion Wyndham Clark, a position he’s been in twice before, both in 2014.
Fowler finished T-2 behind Martin Kaymer at the U.S. Open that year and T-2 behind Rory McIlroy later in the summer at the Open Championship. This time, Fowler sprayed his way to a 5-over 75 and finished T-5, five shots off the pace.
“Iron play was very below average and didn’t make anything. That’s a big thing in majors, especially on a Sunday. Making putts and kind of keeping it fairly stress-free,” said Fowler, who now has nine top-five finishes in 48 major appearances. “(Sunday) was kind of the opposite. I was kind of fighting through it all day.”
“I wasn’t as tight in hitting my spots, and that was how it was, especially the first two days,” Fowler continued. “I had a lot of control and was able to place the ball where I wanted on greens, and today I was just a bit off, whether it was left, right, more so than distance control, and just wasn’t able to put the ball in the proper position where I could go be aggressive to make putts.
“We had a lot of good stuff this week. Unfortunately today we just couldn’t get it going.”
Fowler knew his ship had sailed off into the Pacific sunset when Clark hit a gem of a shot from 282 yards to just 20 feet on the par-5 14th hole.
“That was a very good shot in the situation and moment. Obviously made 4. I thought if I could make that putt on the next, which I nearly did, I thought that might kind of give me a shot to get a two-shot swing and maybe make a run in the last three,” said Fowler. “No, I knew I was on the outside looking in, but at the same time, you never know what’s going to happen. You don’t wish bad on anyone, but it’s tough to close out tournaments. Yeah, somewhere I’d say probably when I missed the fairway on 16, I knew that was going to be a tough hill to climb from there.”
It would be easy for Fowler to beat himself up after each round got a little bit worse as the week went on. After his record-setting 62, he signed for scores of 68 and 70 before his first over-par round of the championship Sunday. Instead, he’s choosing to take the high road and appreciate the perspective that comes with another close call.
Rickie Fowler putts on the first green during the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open Los Angeles Country Club. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
“I was just really excited on how I felt this week, how comfortable I felt to go out and back up my first round and continue to play well. I enjoyed it. You learn from all your experiences,” explained Fowler. “Not the position I wanted to be in after today, but a lot of good coming from this week.”
Fans showed out for the California kid this week, with bright orange shirts and hats scattered all throughout the final-round gallery. While he appreciated the fan support, his family support will make this bad-tasting finish a lot easier to swallow.
“Obviously very bummed, but being able to see my daughter before scoring, it kind of takes a lot of that away because in the kind of big picture, big scheme of things, yes, we want to win tournaments and be the one holding the trophy, but she could care less if I shoot 65 or 85,” he said. “But to have her there, and then we’ll travel to Travelers tomorrow morning, yeah, it kind of just makes you realize and understand golf is special and it’s what I love to do, but it’s definitely not everything.”
Fowler’s form has been on the upward trend as of late, especially this season. In 18 PGA Tour starts, the 34-year-old has seven top 10 finishes, including a runner-up showing at the Zozo Championship last fall. He’s consistently been in the mix, and another solid major performance seems more likely to be in the cards than not, which hasn’t been the case for quite some time.
Phil Mickelson won his first major at the 2004 Masters after 47 career major appearances without a victory. Adam Scott claimed his first after 48 starts at the 2013 Masters. Stewart Cink took 50 tries before he was victorious at the 2009 Open Championship. Others to win their first majors late in their careers include Sergio Garcia (74 starts), Tom Kite (72 starts), Mark O’Meara (59 starts) and Darren Clarke (54 starts).
Fowler performance this week won’t change a thing about how he’s viewed in the media or by fans. Whether it’s a good result or bad, Fowler is open and honest with his answers on his game. Whether he shoots 65 or 75, he’ll sign autographs for young fans until his hand cramps. He’s been a fixture in the game for more than a decade, and another disappointing result won’t change that.
The 2023 U.S. Open just wasn’t his week in the end, but who’s to say the next won’t be?
LOS ANGELES – The long wait continues for Rory McIlroy.
It was as if the stars were aligning for the kid from Holywood, Northern Ireland, to break his nine-year major drought this week at Los Angeles Country Club in the shadows of the Hollywood hills.
After taking advantage of benign conditions Thursday with a 5-under 65, McIlroy remained in the periphery of the leaders with rounds of 67 and 69 by staying true to his game plan of playing smart and with patience. Entering Sunday’s final round, he was one shot off the leader (and eventual champion) Wyndham Clark. A birdie at the first had the crowd stirring in anticipation. Little did they know it would be his last.
McIlroy missed chance after chance, putt after putt, and a couple poor decisions by his own admission kept him from every truly putting the pressure on Clark. The result? A ho-hum, even-par 70 and another major left on the table.
Sound familiar? McIlroy compared this week to last year’s Open at St. Andrews, where he held a share of the 54-hole lead but managed just two birdies to finish third, one stroke behind Cameron Young and two behind winner Cameron Smith.
Rory McIlroy reacts to his putt on the 17th green during the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. (Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
“There was a couple of things that I probably would have done differently, but all in all, I played a solid round of golf,” a visibly disappointed McIlroy said after the round. “That one wedge shot on 14, missed birdie putt on 8, really apart from that, I did everything else the way I wanted to.”
“Yeah, fine, fine margins at this level and at this tournament especially, but I fought to the very end. I obviously never give up. And I’m getting closer,” he continued. “The more I keep putting myself in these positions, sooner or later it’s going to happen for me. Just got to regroup and get focused for (Royal Liverpool) in a few weeks’ time.”
Rewatching old videos of his 2014 Open Championship win at Royal Liverpool – the English venue that will host this year’s Open in a matter of 32 days – made him realize how he needed to keep the driver in the bag this week and trust his other skills around the famed LACC’s North Course.
“I thought I did really well at executing my game plan, hitting a lot of fairways, hitting a lot of greens, again, what you should do at a U.S. Open,” he explained. “If anything, I felt like over the last two days when the greens started to get quite crispy that my speed control was off a little bit, and I think that’s the reason I didn’t hole a lot of putts. I don’t think I was hitting bad putts; just hitting them just with slightly the wrong speed. Some were coming up short, some were going a little long.”
“I can play free. I think I proved that today,” McIlroy added. “Just felt like my speed control was a little off with the putter. That’s probably why I didn’t make a birdie since the first.”
So where does he go from here? Nobody wants McIlroy to win more than himself, and he praised his ability to bounce back earlier in the week.
“I’ve been trying and I’ve come close over the past nine years or whatever it is, and I keep coming back,” he said after 36 holes on Friday. “I feel like I’ve showed a lot of resilience in my career, a lot of ups and downs, and I keep coming back. And whether that means that I get rewarded or I get punched in the gut or whatever it is, I’ll always keep coming back.”
This week was a punch in the gut. If the reward is to come, he’ll need to practice what he preaches.
“I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship,” he added on Sunday. With 19 top 10s on his resume since his last major win, he’s nearly a quarter of the way there.
According to McIlroy, the countdown to the Open started three minutes before his post-round presser, but he’s got a few stops before his next crack at finding water to end his drought. First up is the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut next week before heading across the pond to The Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland for the Genesis Scottish Open, July 13-16, held a week before the Open.
If there’s one thing we learned from this week, it’s that the countdown to Royal Liverpool is on, and McIlroy will be back.
The trend of LIV golfers contending at majors continued at the 2023 U.S. Open.
LOS ANGELES — The trend of LIV Golf players contending at majors continued this week at the 2023 U.S. Open.
Fifteen players who took their talents to the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund were in the 156-player field, and 10 made the weekend cut. Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson were both within striking distance of the leaders on the weekend, and both earned top-10 finishes.
Earlier this year three LIV players finished in the top six at the Masters, and of the 16 players who competed at the 2023 PGA Championship, 11 made the weekend cut.
Check out how each of the LIV Golf League players fared this week at the 2023 U.S. Open.
Clark co-leads the 2023 U.S. Open after 54 holes along with Rickie Fowler.
Wyndham Clark recently won his first PGA Tour event at the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
Clark has been near the top of lots of leaderboards since then and has a chance to take home his first major victory at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
The 29-year-old Colorado native and former Oklahoma State and Oregon golfer is constantly on the road traveling from tournament to tournament and spends a bit of time away from his current home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Having some familiar items with him can make those long weeks on the road easier, so Golfweek asked Clark for five things he brings to every tournament.
LOS ANGELES – Something Johnny Miller said this week sets up the final round of the U.S. Open Sunday, with golfers Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark in contention for the major championship.
Miller, the Hall of Fame golfer who became a popular golf commentator, was here to accept the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor awarded by the United States Golf Association. During a news conference, he talked about what distinguished him for almost three decades as a broadcaster.
“I thought the greatness of golf is the choke factor,” Miller said. “I don’t care if you’re playing for a milkshake or $5 Nassau or whatever. The greatness of golf is whether you can make that putt to win, and to ignore that is sort of missing the greatest part of golf, no doubt.
Yet Miller talked a lot about the choke factor. And heading into the final round of the 123rd U.S. Open is the perfect time for more talk about one of Miller’s favorite subjects.
Rickie Fowler looks on in the first hole during the third round of the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. (Photo: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)
Why Rickie Fowler might choke in U.S. Open final round
For Fowler, the good news is what he says.
“I’m not scared to fail,” he told reporters after his round Saturday. “I’ve dealt with that. We’re just going to go have fun, continue to try to execute, leave it all out there, see where we stand on 18.”
Fowler’s not scared to fail, he suggested, because he’s survived struggles that included him almost losing his PGA Tour card last year. But as likable as Fowler is, there’s still the choke factor.
Fowler has never won a major.
Worse, he has a history of near-misses.
Tied for second at the U.S. Open in 2014. Tied for second at The Championship Open in 2014. Tied for third at the PGA Championship in 2014. Second at the Masters in 2018.
How could anyone be shocked if Fowler heads into the final holes still in contention, only to reverse to runner-up form?
Let’s not forget that Saturday he failed to make a putt inside 15 feet and made bogey on the final hole and lost his one-stroke lead.
Rory McIlroy reacts on the 9th green during the third round of the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. (Photo: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports)
Why Rory McIlroy might choke in U.S. Open final round
For McIlroy, the good news is what he says.
“I’m going out there to try to execute a game plan,” he told reporters after his round Saturday, “and I feel like over the last three days I’ve executed that game plan really, really well. And I just need to do that for one more day.”
Of course, McIlroy has uttered some version of this many times during the nine years. It’s been that long since he won his last major − the PGA Championship in 2014.
For the fifth year in a row, McIlroy will enter the final round of the U.S. Open no lower than tied for seventh on the leaderboard. But has not prevailed.
Perhaps more worrisome, two weeks ago at the Memorial Tournament, McIlroy entered the final round in a three-way tie for the lead at 6-under. On Sunday he shot a 3-over 75 and finished tied for 7th.
Jun 16, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Wyndham Clark hits on the 11th tee during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
Why Wyndham Clark might choke in U.S. Open final round
For Clark, the good news he says.
“Honestly I’m really looking forward tomorrow and the challenge it’s going to bring,” he said, “and hopefully it’s my day.”
Although his mindset his admirable, it’s probably not his day.
Yes, in May he won his first PGA Tour event at Wells Fargo Championship. But in the six major championships he has played, his best finish is tied for 76th – and he missed the cut at the 2023 PGA Championship.
Clark, 29, has never played on a stage this big.
Also, after his 1-under 69 Saturday, he was refreshingly candid in criticizing the late tee times. But please name the last player who complained about tee times the night before winning their first major.
What if they all choke in U.S. Open final round?
If Fowler, Mcllroy and Clark all gag under pressure, this is where it gets interesting.
Scottie Scheffler, three shots off the lead at 7 under, won the 2022 Masters with a three-shot victory over McIlroy and currently is the world’s top-ranked golfer.
Moreover, on Saturday he closed his round of 2-under 68 with an eagle and birdie. The back-to-back holes had a clutch vibe.
And if Scheffler chokes, there’s always Dustin Johnson, who’s five shots off the lead. He won the 2016 U.S. Open and the 2020 Masters and has tied for second in three other majors.
All of these players might want to channel their inner Johnny Miller, for this is the 50-year anniversary of his final-round 63 at the 1973 U.S. Open. With one of the greatest rounds in golf history, Miller outdueled the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino in securing a one-stroke victory over John Schlee.
