‘Diabolical’ Los Angeles venue raises familiar questions about USGA

T he United States Golf Association has become accustomed to firefighting at its marquee event. US Opens became mired in controversy long ago. From watering greens mid-round at Shinnecock Hills to Dustin Johnson’s rules farrago at Oakmont and all manner of complaint about course set-up in between.

This is a major that has carried the whiff of cordite as routine. In the background, the USGA is front and centre of a knotty situation regarding whether or not the distance golf balls fly should be rolled back.

There is a debate to be had over LA Country Club as a suitable site for one of golf’s prime events on the basis of exclusivity. Not allowing Hollywood A-stars as members is mildly amusing but more troublesome is the history in this area of discrimination against Jews, Catholics or others of a political standpoint that did not meet with club approval. Hillcrest Country Club was founded by the Jewish community in western Los Angeles in the 1920s as a direct response to being locked out elsewhere.

LACC is infamously rigid and stuffy. It carries a $200,000 (£155,000) entry fee. Is it the right message, in terms of growing golf, to bring a US Open here? While Augusta National remains such a celebrated part of this sport, perhaps all bets are off.

Golfers stay out of such conversations. There has, however, been no shortage of background noise to accompany the 123rd staging of this tournament. Take Wyndham Clark, who was irked at concluding his third round in the dark after teeing off post-3pm local time on the West Coast to accommodate television needs. Clark did birdie the 18th in fading light but produced a messy bogey on the preceding hole. Rickie Fowler, who was alongside Clark, bogeyed the last.

“It was a little