Updates from the U.S. Open's pre-tournament press conferences

LOS ANGELES – U.S. Open week at The Los Angeles Country Club has begun and plenty of the world’s best golfers are California dreamin’ about adding their name to an illustrious group of winners.

It’s been 75 years since the U.S. Open was last played in Los Angeles. The 1948 U.S. Open, won by Ben Hogan, was held at The Riviera Country Club – and now the championship returns to an equally prestigious but much less recognizable venue in The Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course. The famously private club has kept to itself when it’s come to big-time championships since hosting various LA Opens back in the late 1930s, but it’s come out of its shadow following a restoration by Gil Hanse more than a decade ago that reinvigorated the prestigious George Thomas Jr. design. It played host to the 2013 Pac-12 Championship and the 2017 Walker Cup and now gets its first crack at the U.S. Open.

For many in the field that means this week is the first time they’ve ever stepped on property. That should make for a compelling championship full of storylines as both fans and players get an introduction to the storied course. As the stars step behind the mic ahead of Thursday’s opening round, we are here to keep you updated on all the notes and quotes that you need to know.

Homa relishes return to roots

One of Max Homa’s enduring goals is to be a “happy dude.”

That mantra was put to the test after the 2017 PGA TOUR season, where he made just two cuts, finished outside the top 200 on the FedExCup and needed to return to Second Stage of Q-School – at the time, without a path back to the PGA TOUR for the next season.

Rather than wallow, Homa returned to his roots. He brought his mom to that September’s Walker Cup at Los Angeles Country Club in his native LA. They sat behind the short par-3 15th hole and found joy in the myriad challenges proposed by a flip-wedge shot. The epitome of golf as “deceptively simple, endlessly complicated,” as Arnold Palmer said.

“My mom and I sat behind 15 green, because you could see 14 and 16 and 11, and it was so fun watching everybody kind of make a mess of this little dinky hole,” Homa said Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to the fans getting to enjoy that this week.”

Fast-forward six years and Homa, a six-time TOUR winner, has ascended into the top 10 in the world. The narrative around the Cal alum has suddenly shifted: When will he contend in a major? He’s still, after all, without a top-10 finish at any of golf’s four biggest championships.

The Hollywood ethos would suggest LACC – the place where he shot an opening-round 61 en route to victory at the 2013 Pac-12 Championship – as the place to end that drought.

To that end, Homa has worked for the last few weeks on a game plan. Not for the course per se, but for eliminating distractions. A home game can bring extra requests that lead to extra stress. Homa knew he needed to get ahead so the circumstances can best help his cause.

“If I didn’t respond to you this week and you’re somehow watching this, I’m sorry,” Homa said. “I’m fortunate that my friends texted me weeks ago about wanting to come out … I think if you’re texting me now to get a ticket, probably won’t get a response.

“It's hard for me to say no to people. It's hard for me not to be as helpful as I can, but this week … I want this to go smoothly. I don't want to feel overwhelmed. Riviera (host of The Genesis Invitational) can get overwhelming even. So I'm trying to take a step back and be maybe a little less helpful at times.”

That’s not to suggest he’s taking the week for granted. Far from it.

Homa grew up at Vista Valencia, a 27-hole facility situated just 34 miles from LACC. The course features an 18-hole, par-61 executive course, tipping out at less than 4,400 yards, along with a nine-hole par-3 course. Tuesday, he fondly recollected the days of teeing up a lob wedge 3 inches above the turf to see how much spin he could produce.

Homa had dinner with hometown friends earlier this week, and his dad was on-hand for Tuesday’s practice round. He spoke glowingly of these unique perks. In a complex world, it’s the simple things that resonate.

Like perching up on a short par 3, watching some golf with his mom.

“It’s really cool,” Homa said. “It’s really cool.”

-- Kevin Prise

Morikawa cautious in return from back injury

Look for Collin Morikawa to tee it up “kind of weirdly” at his hometown major.

The U.S. Open marks the Los Angeles native’s first start since withdrawing from the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday prior to Sunday’s final round, just two off the lead. During a pre-round workout, he had a back spasm while doing reactive exercises; it was his first such injury as a professional, he said.

Morikawa has been thinking this U.S. Open about since LACC was announced as host venue, and although he was disappointed to miss out on a chance for a second title at Muirfield Village (2020 Workday Charity Open), his mind quickly shifted to this week. He took a few days off, started hitting balls late last week and feels pain-free during the swing, he said Tuesday.

He’ll take certain precautionary measures at LACC, though, to keep from reaggravating the issue. That’s where the weird tee-box routine might come in.

“I pretty much squat down and tee it up,” Morikawa said. “Same warmup, same routine, doing everything the same. Just teeing it up weirdly.

“I think we do so much leaning with our back, bending over, that I've just built in bad movement patterns … it's being able to just make sure I bend properly from the hip rather than putting too much stress. It’s just going to be precautionary with how I’m moving this week.”

Among Morikawa’s two major titles is the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. A second major in his home state would mean the world, let alone in his hometown. Morikawa stayed with his parents Saturday night and describes LA as his “favorite spot in the world.”

“It’s always going to be home for me,” Morikawa said. “No matter where I live.”

He wasn’t going to miss this one.

-- Kevin Prise

Short par-3 15th set to shine

The par-3 15th hole at LACC has played as short as 78 yards in competition.

Seventy-eight.

The diabolical par 3, which measures 124 yards on the card and can play as long as 145, features a green that is sprawling but with two distinct sections. The back portion features a more traditional circular shape, with a steep bunker that snakes long and left, while a hole location on the narrow front portion requires precise distance control to elude front and back bunkers with severe faces, or the intersecting wispy rough. A flip wedge shot might require a conservative game plan.

And the players love it.

“That’s a special hole,” said Collin Morikawa, who played the hole in the 2017 Walker Cup, representing the victorious Team USA. “There’s a lot of character to hole 15 because you can move pins, you can move tees. It’s a wedge shot, it could be a 9-iron, it could be an 8-iron depending on wind.”

Morikawa made this point unprompted; he was asked about the lengthy par-3 11th, and the Los Angeles native made a point to wax poetic about the 15th.

“Eleven is just a long, long par 3,” Morikawa said. “I think hole 15 is a very special hole.”

World No. 2 Jon Rahm played the hole 10 years ago in the Pac-12 Championship, then a freshman at Arizona State. He remembers it well.

“Hit a great shot,” Rahm said. “Landed a foot from the hole … long into the rough. It was a lob wedge for sure and it was playing downwind.”

Despite that stinging memory, Rahm relishes the hole’s challenge and the options it provides – being “brave” to attack the flag, or using the slope on a more cautious approach.

Short par 3s and bravery don’t often fit together. But that’s just the point.

“Very rarely are you going to have a hole that short where the best players in the world are going to be thinking about going 20 feet long left to use that slope to at least hit the green, and that's something beautiful,” Rahm said.

“It's a hole that gives you a lot to think about. I wish we saw more of them like that.”

-- Kevin Prise