Los Angeles CC Checks All The Boxes

Geoff Shackelford, author of 'Golf Architecture For Normal People,' poses three simple questions to determine that the 2023 U.S. Open host site is going to be memorable.

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Geoff Shackelford

As the ultra exclusive and architecturally masterful Los Angeles Country Club prepares to open its doors to the world this week, I’ve penned a new book for normal folks of golf. The hope with this tome is to pile on the wildy exciting appreciation more and more golfers have for my lifelong passion of course design.

Now, I realize the idea of normalcy and a 126-year-old country club making its debut on the world stage might not seem like compatible themes to combine for this column, but work with me.

Hole No. 11, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles, California. | Photo: Geoff Shackelford

The book, “Golf Architecture For Normal People,” hopes to allow everyone who has picked up a club to better sense and articulate what they love, hate or even mildly find interesting about a course. And to do it in a way that does not ignite a 19th hole riot where the parties have to hash things out in Judge Elihu Smails’ office. Anyone who has ever questioned the architectural integrity of a friend’s course knows what I’m talking about.

But to show how the book’s three main questions are applicable for everything from the cheapest muni to the priciest U.S. Open club, let’s consider how LACC’s North Course fares under the weight of the simple questions I spell out in the book as a simple way to speak to many design factors.

Naturally these questions are fleshed out in greater details between the book pages. And I also throw in a few chapters about the many ways you can now improve your game by doing a little research in advance, but the meat of the book gets into the value of asking simple questions most golfers probably already unknowingly pose when thinking about a course. Here goes.

Can you remember every hole after playing the course?
I prefer to use this test on the way home from a course and it’s a certified disaster when holes are already a blur before you’ve even made a right turn out the driveway. But anyone who has played the cathedrals of golf knows that memories of pretty much every hole stick for days, weeks and years later. The case for memorability as a way to highlight design details is sometimes mocked as shallow by architecture geeks, but I think it speaks a lot about the substance of the architect’s effort. And as for LACC’s North, it’s tough for me to say there is a forgettable hole in part because I’ve spent over 250 days on site working with Gil Hanse and the membership on restoring George Thomas’ design. But I’m supremely confident that any player, spectator or even television viewer tuning in this week will find all 18 holes to have a special life and character that’s impossible to forget. Box one checked.

Could you enjoy playing there every day?
Yes, I realize that I’m posing this question with regard to a city-center U.S. Open course with staggering beauty, views, individuality and class. So this should be an easy one. But I struggled here because the North is hard. I mean, really, really hard. It can make a fool of you if any part of the game is shaky. Furthermore, the club has a South Course that’s a 1,000 yards shorter than the North that I worked on redesigning with Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2016.

Spectators this week will get a good look at it since the USGA has set up much of the fan experience there and I’m curious what people make of its different style compared to the North. But it’s pretty neat. And I’d play it as much as the North Course if given the choice but, ultimately, if for some crazy reason the club decided to sell that multi-billion dollar piece of real estate only to be left with the North — not happening BTW — I guess I could play the North every day. I know, the bravery.

Is LACC North a place you’d like to take your dog for a walk?
Wait, what? The first two questions have allowed you to answer wonky questions about routing, strategy, fun, challenge, creativity and many other values we appreciate in a course. But they do not quite tap into more nuanced design traits that some golfers adore and which are not easy to identify or explain. So as the book details, man’s best friend can tell us a lot about what feels good underfoot to us or what is beautiful about a course. You’ve probably heard a golfer say a course “feels like it’s been there forever.”

The place just has a permanence that is a joy to walk and makes you happy to be visiting again. And if you know anything about dogs or have watched them at work, they love grass, natural beauties, zig zagging low to the ground and ultimately, excited by a certain type of scale to where they are walking. There is a general sense of peace that so many courses deliver that the Top 100 rankings do not identify. In North’s case, our four-legged friends would be in heaven. While it’s a pretty severe property in terms of elevation change, the holes flow and wind their way gracefully over the landscape. You could leave your clubs behind and enjoy the walk.

Hole No. 3, Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles, California. | Photo: Geoff Shackelford

I’m sure to the enormous relief of LACC’s membership, the North checks off the “Yes” box to my three questions. It’s a spectacular place to play golf whether you’re a U.S. Open contestant or just one of the lucky few who passed muster with membership committee. Not every course can compete with it nor does golf need everything to be Top 100 worthy. But we do need to reward and highlight more places that check off the above categories. My book highlights how a lot more courses prompt a yes to the questions posed and are valuable places worth taking good care of.

This is easily the coolest time in the game for someone like who has loved analyzing courses for three decades now. Many people want to know just a little bit more about what goes into the design of courses than any at any point I can recall. Knowing just enough to be dangerous will make your post-round beer and bantering sessions more substantial. More than that, you’ll be a better and happier golfer when armed with a few simple questions in your back pocket.

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Geoff Shackelford is the author of “Golf Architecture For Normal People” and part of the design team that restored Los Angeles Country Club. He also publishes The Quadrilateral, a Substack newsletter devoted to covering golf’s major championships.