Some of Brooks Koepka’s critiques of Los Angeles Country Club are on display Sunday at the U.S. Open.
On Friday, Koepka mentioned how he didn’t like that there are several holes at LACC where, “No matter what you hit, the ball just ends up in the same spot.” No hole is a better example of that than the par-4 3rd.
The fairway at the 419-yard hole is at least 50 yards wide in some spots but is sloped to funnel almost every ball down to the middle-left side. After three days of tournament play, plus several practice rounds before from pros who generally hit it a lot straighter than us mere mortals, the divots at the bottom of the fairway are adding up.
It’s basically dumb luck if your tee shot stays out of a divot at this point and Dylan Wu found that out the hard way early in his final round.
Even with the tee box moved up about 35 yards Sunday — presumably so tee shots are hit where there are fewer divots — Wu’s drive found a divot just 84 yards from the pin.
And as far as divots are concerned, this might as well have been the Grand Canyon of divots as nearly a quarter of Wu’s ball had to be below ground level.
Not even a pro of Wu’s caliber could negotiate the brutal break. He tried to chop down on the ball to assure ball first contact and, boy did he do that. He skulled the wedge and it sailed 35 yards over the pin and underneath a tree.
(Pros, they’re just like us!)
Somehow, the trees beyond the green actually kicked Wu’s ball back to the edge, but it still left him a brutal shot to the green, running away from him toward and past the front right pin. His backswing was limited by the trees behind and his view of the ball may have even been obstructed. Not to mention viewers couldn’t even see his ball buried in the rough on the broadcast.
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But, despite the skull he just hit, Wu is a pro after all and he can still do some things with a golf ball weekend hacks could only dream of.
With deft touch, Wu somehow chipped his ball onto the putting surface and watched as it trickled out and got closer and closer to the hole. He even earned some props from playing partner Jon Rahm. The ball stopped just 10-feet seven-inches from the hole.
Ultimately, Wu missed the putt for his second bogey in a row. However, as far as bogeys come, that has to be one of the better ones he’s made in his career. Plus, he went on a bit of run after that, with three birdies in his next five holes to get to one under for the day.
But Wu’s bogey serves as a stark bit of foreshadowing for what the leaders will face later in the final round — when a bunch more groups worth of divots will be in the fairway.