The 2023 U.S. Open is currently underway at LA Country Club in Southern California.

Opens played on the West coast, like this one, are especially enjoyable to watch since the time-difference allows for play to extend into late evening viewing here in the East.

The Los Angeles Country Club is new to hosting major championships, but early reviews from tour pros have been especially favorable.

The course, built in the late 1920s, is an extremely private country club with a membership that includes many well-known Hollywood actors and executives.

It has only been recently that the club has allowed any sort of outside tournament to be held at their club.

My pick this week is California’s own Collin Morikawa.

Sunnehanna Amateur

The Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament is also in full swing as we speak. The Johnstown-area event opened play on Wednesday and is set to crown its champion on Saturday afternoon.

Any local fan who wants to see the next generation of golfing superstars can catch the action, free of charge, in the Westmont section of Johnstown each day through Saturday.

Revisited

A couple of additional, interesting notes from the recent Central Counties individual and team championship:

During the tournament’s first round, Huntingdon’s Ed Strickler matched his age by shooting the remarkable score of 74. Strickler has competed in every CC Individual event he’s been eligible for since 1965.

Long-time Huntingdon member Al Weyant also shared with me that the club’s team-victory this year was Huntingdon’s first since 1998. Weyant was on both winning teams, along with Strickler, Scott Ulrich and Lantz Thompson.

40 years ago

During the third week of June in 1983, Immergrun assistant professional Alan Rosensteel competed in the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh.

The Central Cambria high school graduate played four years on the Saint Francis golf team before advancing through both regional and sectional qualifying to earn his spot in the 1983 U.S. Open.

Rosensteel scored a two-day total of 172 to miss the cut but would go on to a successful career in the golf industry, serving as the long-time director of career development at the Golf Academy of America in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Rosensteel retired in 2018 and currently lives in South Carolina.

(On a related note: local golf standout Greg Ferguson Sr. also progressed through regional qualifying that same year and narrowly missed qualifying for the 1983 US Open at Oakmont, finishing just a couple strokes behind Rosensteel at the sectional qualifier).

Ken Love comments on local golf for the Mirror. He can be reached at gltr777@atlanticbb.net.