Representative picture:| Photo Credit: Getty Images through AFP

LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka summed up the state {of professional} golf with a cheeky remark on the finish of his pre-U.S. Open press convention.

“Thanks. See you guys at the Travelers (Championship) next week,” Koepka stated.

PGA Tour and LIV members alike are nonetheless baffled by final week’s shock announcement of a merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. But in the interim, Koepka isn’t again to taking part in a PGA Tour schedule, and the one locations the place gamers from the rival excursions get collectively are on the 4 majors.

Questions about the way forward for the game will take a again seat to a tough take a look at of golf at a brand new venue when the 2023 U.S. Open tees off Thursday on the Los Angeles Country Club.

Koepka heads to Los Angeles as a five-time main champion after turning into the primary lively member of LIV to win a significant final month on the PGA Championship in Rochester, N.Y. Only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have gained extra majors than Koepka since 2000.

Koepka handed Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (4) in main titles with that win. The USGA paired them collectively together with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan for the primary two rounds.

“The more chaotic things get the easier it gets for me,” Koepka stated. “Everything starts to slow down and I am able to focus on whatever I need to focus on while everybody else is dealing with distractions, worried about other things.”

LACC’s North Course will play as a 7,381-yard par-70, with three par-5s and 5 par-3s. The par-3s vary from the 290-yard eleventh gap to the fifteenth, which may play as quick as 78 yards however options three curling bunkers and a extremely sloped inexperienced.

It’s the course’s first time internet hosting a significant championship, however a couple of elite golfers have competed there earlier than. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and two-time main winner Collin Morikawa performed LACC on the 2017 Walker Cup, a junior staff occasion. And as a school golfer, Max Homa set the course document with a 61 in the course of the 2013 Pac-12 Championship.

But U.S. Opens are notoriously probably the most tough of the majors, and nobody expects to see a 61 this week.

“It’s going to be pretty hard,” Homa stated. “Yeah, I think the sun being out is real helpful. A little bit of wind is going to make it spicy. I hope it’s carnage. I hope it’s a typical U.S. Open.”

Homa (Los Angeles), Patrick Cantlay (Long Beach) and Xander Schauffele (San Diego) are all Southern California natives who enter the week ranked top-10 on the planet however nonetheless after their elusive first main title. Any certainly one of them may obtain a hometown hero’s welcome with a victory.

Scheffler, in the meantime, has been constant in each means: He’s made 18 straight cuts, completed within the high 12 or higher at 15 straight occasions, he leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee to inexperienced, and he’s been constantly poor at placing.

Asked if he was altering putters this week, Scheffler stated, “You guys can find out Thursday.

“I don’t ever take decisions on switching equipment lightly,” he stated. “... The PGA I actually felt like I rolled it pretty good. Few putts here or there that lipped out that should have gone in.”

Matt Fitzpatrick of England is the defending champion, having gained final 12 months at The Country Club exterior Boston. World No. 2 Jon Rahm of Spain, winner of the 2021 U.S. Open and this 12 months’s Masters, can also be a secure guess to contend on the weekend.

“There’s not really a part of your game in any major championship, let alone a U.S. Open, that can really be in doubt. You’re going to need to access every single aspect of your game to win a championship like this,” Rahm stated. “I think it becomes more of a mental factor, not overdoing it at home (in practice). You can never really replicate U.S. Open conditions.”