US Open tees off amid turmoil

LOS ANGELES – The 123rd US Open tees off on Thursday at Los Angeles Country Club with global golf gripped by suspense worthy of a Hollywood script.

LACC’s par-70 North Course, a jewel that club members have largely preferred to keep to themselves, is hosting the US Open for the first time, 75 years after the championship was last held in Los Angeles at Riviera Country Club.

The course’s coming out party has been overshadowed by last week’s stunning announcement that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour would join forces with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf, the upstart circuit whose launch roiled the global game.

The world’s top players arrived in Los Angeles still reeling from the news and with details yet to be revealed wondering what it meant for their professional futures.

Masters champion Jon Rahm spoke of a feeling of “betrayal” by PGA Tour officials and a sense of being in limbo.

“There’s definitely a lot of curious players,” said LIV golfer Cameron Smith, the reigning British Open champion from Australia.

“Once the balls go in the air, the athletes take the narrative back,” US Golf Association chief executive Mike Whan confidently predicted.

A field of 156 is led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, second-ranked Rahm and last month’s PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka.

They’ll be getting to grips with a course whose wide fairways look deceptively welcoming for a US Open, but which will require creativity in navigating the scrubby barrancas and patchy bermuda rough on the undulating layout.

Blind shots are not uncommon, while the five par-threes will offer anything from a near 300-yard tee shot at the 11th to one of around 80 yards at the 15th.