2023 U.S. Open Golf Championship

Sam Batz

2023 U.S. Open Tournament:

• Date: June 15-18, 2023
• Course: Los Angeles Country Club
• Watch: NBC Golf
• Purse: $17,500,000

The 123rd U.S. Open Golf Championship begins on Thursday, June 15th, and after all the dissension surrounding professional golf, fans and golfers will get a short respite from controversy to enjoy the sport they love. The 2023 U.S. Open will take place at the Los Angeles Country Club, a Par 70 course (7,423 yards) consisting of 5 par-3’s, 10 par-4’s, and 3 par-5’s. It is the first-ever men’s major on the Southern California course, which only a handful of golfers have played in competition, and is considered one of the tricker courses because of its uneven lies and firm-and-fast surfaces. Only a handful of players have played the LACC in competition, and this could be one of the lowest-scoring U.S. Opens in recent memory. 

The U.S Open is this year’s 3rd major and will feature golfers from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, a symbolic gesture of the two golfing entity’s recent agreement to join forces. England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who never received an invitation to join LIV Golf, was last year’s U.S. Open Champion, and enters the competition priced at +3500 to repeat. The favorite to win this year’s competition is American golfer Scottie Scheffler (+650), who is having a brilliant season with 16 straight T-12 finishes. Scheffler’s style of play complements the LACC course nicely, and with the form he’s in, it’s no surprise Scottie is expected to do well this week. Jon Rahm (+800), Brooks Koepka (+850), Viktor Hovland (+1000), and Rory McIlroy (+1100) round-off this year’s top-5 favorites to win the U.S. Open. 

Top-20 Golfers of The U.S. Open

Three players standout as the clear favorites of the competition: Scheffler, Rahm, and Koepka. This year, between the three of them, they have: 8 global victories, 2 majors victories, and 5 top-10 finishes at majors. It would be smart to take one of these three sensational golfers, as it’s unlikely anyone else in the field will surpass all three of them at LACC this week. In a field of 156 golfers, it can be difficult to determine a winner, but I like Scheffler this year. He’s the world’s No. 1 golfer yet again, and is one of the few players in the field who’s played the unruly LACC course, which requires golfers to get creative with their short-game, and few players are as bold as Scheffler is around the greens. 

It’s been a turbulent few weeks for the PGA Tour after they announced plans to merge with LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabian-backed professional golf league, which you can read about here. Everyone, especially the PGA, is certainly looking forward to a reprieve from the animosity and confusion that sprouted from the aftermath of the mergers announcement. But we can put that behind us for now, as this week is all about the LACC and the U.S. Open. The competition will feature the best golfers in the world from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. The U.S. Open, whose inaugural Championship took place 128 years ago in 1895, is one of golf’s oldest and most cherished competitions, and regardless of a player’s current affiliation, all of them can respect the history and impactfulness of the U.S. Open.    

There are amazing stories surrounding this year’s U.S. Open. From Phil Mickelson’s chase to become the 6th man to complete a career Grand Slam, to Fitzpatrick’s attempt to become the 8th player to win back-to-back U.S Opens, this should be an amazing tournament. The American golfers will look to reclaim their major, as an American hasn’t won since 2020, and not since 1910 has there been at least a three-year drought without an American champion. Fortunately for the American golfers, 13 of the last 15 U.S. Opens held in California were won by an American. The stakes are high and the storylines are set, and I can’t wait to see what this year’s U.S. Open has in store for both players and fans. 

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