Brooks Koepka Going For Major No. 6, The Unknown Around Professional Golf Lead Top Storylines At The U.S. Open
We may have never had more unknowns heading into a major championship than we do leading into the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, which means there is no lack of storylines ahead of the year's third major.
The golf course itself is a mystery given how incredibly private it is plus there hasn't been a professional tournament held on the grounds since 1940. Then you of course have the many, many questions surrounding professional golf as a whole following the announcement of a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Add the fact that you have the best players in the world competing for a major championship, there is just a lot going on, to put it incredibly mildly.
Top Storylines For The 2023 U.S. Open At LACC
Brooks Koepka Looking For Major No. 6 In Warp Speed
Brooks Koepka picked up his fifth major and third PGA Championship title less than a month ago and would become just the 15th player in the history of the game to win six or more majors with a win in Southern California this week.
While winning major No. 6 would be an incredible story by itself, it's the pace at which Koepka has gotten there that would be stunning if he finds the winner's circle.
Koepka is just 33-years-old. Phil Mickelson, who has six majors to his name, did not win his first major championship until he was 34 years of age. Lee Trevino, also a six-time major winner, didn't reach No. 6 until he was 44. Nick Faldo, the owner of seven majors, didn't reach his sixth until the day before his 35th birthday.
If Koepka were to win on Sunday it would be six major championships in just 37 major starts and six in his last 23. Those numbers would be paired with another 13 Top 10 finishes in majors in his career.
That's mindblowing stuff.
The Uncertainty Following The PGA Tour - LIV Golf Merger News
The PGA Tour's announcement that it will be merging with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) and in turn, LIV Golf, will be the headline surrounding the game for months to come. The only thing that would trump it come Sunday would be Koepka winning or Phil Mickelson completing the career grand slam, but only for a brief moment.
The merger news turned a week old on Tuesday, and while it sent shockwaves through the sports world as a whole, it's now the infinite number of unknowns that's become the storyline.
Jimmy Dunne started negotiations for the PGA Tour - LIV Golf merger via WhatsApp. The uncertainty in professional golf is among the leading storylines heading into the U.S. Open. (Photo by Oisin Keniry/Getty Images)
Nobody outside of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan, and investment banker Jimmy Dunne seem to even have an iota of an idea of what professional golf may look like next year, let alone next week.
The only thing we know is that Saudi Arabia now has a seat at the table of professional golf, and depending on who you ask, that seat will very much be at the head of the table.
Will LIV Golf still be a thing next season? Will LIV and the PGA Tour co-exist as friendly rivals? Will Monahan have a job in a few months? Are golf fans going to have to try and care about team golf and learn dozens more team names over the next few months? Nobody knows.
A U.S. Open Being Played On A Golf Course Most People Have Never Seen
From everything I've read and listened to in the lead-up to the event, Los Angeles Country Club isn't as private and exclusive as Augusta National, but it's not that far behind.
George Thomas, who also designed Riviera Country Club which golf fans are very familiar with, was the mad-man behind LACC, which was established before the turn of the 20th century. It's located right in the center of Los Angeles and is a monstrosity of a property, which is difficult to even imagine in the center of such a densely populated area.
Gil Hanse redesigned the property and outside of knowing that it's made up of Bermudagrass fairways and rough paired with Bentgrass greens, we won't know what this course holds until balls are in the air on Thursday morning.
It's a safe bet that the USGA will have LACC tricked out a bit in an attempt to make it the stiffest test in all of golf.
Phil Mickelson And His Quest For The Slam
The idea of Phil Mickelson winning a U.S. Open at the age of 53 is preposterous. The exact same thing was said before he rattled off a win at the PGA Championship in 2021 and there wasn't a person on the planet that saw his T-2 finish at the Masters coming this past April.
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History, and Father Time, are very much against Mickelson, but this seems like it could be a relatively friendly venue for Lefty. It's a big ballpark where players can spray driver everywhere and everyone in the field will be met with odd and tricky approach shots that may suit Mickelson's eye.
Mickelson has finished runner-up six times in U.S. Opens in his career and you have to go all the way back to his T-2 finish in 2013 to find his last Top 25 run in the event.
If Scottie Scheffler Shows Up With A Putter, Look Out
Scottie Scheffler may only have two wins to his name this season, but what this man is doing on the golf course is quite literally historic.
According to Data Golf, Scheffler is carrying a 3.00 average in strokes gained: tee to green this season. The only player who has ever averaged over 2.90 strokes gained: tee to green in a season since 2004 is a man by the name of Tiger Woods, who picked up 3.22 strokes in 2006. Woods won eight tournaments that year, including two major championships.
Scottie Scheffler, and whether or not he can find a hot putter, among the big storylines for the 2023 U.S. Open. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The only thing holding Scheffler back from winning by multiple shots basically every time he's teeing it up is an ice-cold putter.
While the ball striking has been historic, Scheffler ranks 148th on Tour in strokes gained: putting. Despite that horrible rating, he still ranks first on Tour in strokes gained: total.
To put into perspective just how bad the putting has been, Scheffler missed out on making a playoff at The Memorial two weeks ago despite finishing dead last in putting in the entire field.
A warm putter from Scheffler this week could result in a catastrophically large gap on the leaderboard come Sunday. Rory McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open by eight strokes, and that could be in play for Scheffler if the putter gets going, in my opinion.
Max Homa Finally Showing Up To A Major At A Place He Loves
Over the next handful of days, you will hear about Max Homa owning the course record at LACC no less than 800 times. He shot 61 on the course back in his college days to beat the previous course record of 62 that was held by Patrick Cantlay.
This year's U.S. Open essentially being a home game for Homa will either be an advantage are simply too good to be true, and based on his major championship record, it may turn out to be the latter.
Homa has made 14 major championship starts as a professional and has missed the cut in half of them. His best major finish is a T-13 at last year's PGA Championship and in his three U.S. Open starts as a pro, a T-47 in 2022 is his best result.
The six-time PGA Tour winner will be comfortable in LA, but we'll have to wait and see if that's a good thing or not.
Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris