2023: A historic summer of tournament golf in Los Angeles

While it hasn't felt much like summer weather lately in and around Los Angeles, this weekend's DIO Implant LA Open on the LPGA Tour signals a shift of sorts.

It's the kickoff point for a historic summer of tournament golf in greater Los Angeles. Never has LA captured such an impressive lineup of professional golf events. Two tournaments on the LPGA Tour - the DIO Implant LA Open (March 30-April 2) and the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro (April 27-30) - will be followed by the grand finale, the first U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club's North course. Despite the area's rich history of hosting PGA Tour events, the only other local club to host a men's major is Riviera Country Club for the 1948 U.S. Open and the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships.

So many great players have grown up playing L.A.-area courses - including Lee Elder and Tiger Woods - or competed at USC and UCLA. Still, L.A. has always fallen short when compared to the best golf cities in America like Chicago or New York. Is the City of Angels ready to prove that its golf scene is alive and well and better than ever?

Below, we preview each event, plus offer up a guide of where to play public golf should you be in town for any of the tournaments, all of which will be televised by Golf Channel, NBC and/or Peacock:

This is the second year that the private Palos Verdes Golf Club will host the LPGA Tour, although it's the first year for the DIO, which was previously based at Wilshire Country Club from 2018-2022 (with 2020 canceled by the pandemic). Fifteen of the top 20 in the world will compete for a share of a $1.75-million purse, up $250,000 from 2022. Palos Verdes, a timeless classic designed by William Bell and George Thomas and restored by Origins Golf Design in 2013, has hosted the Therese Hession Regional Challenge presented by Northrop Grumman, formerly the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, for the past 26 years. It's one of the biggest events in collegiate golf. LPGA Tour pro and former USC golfer Lizette Salas has been playing 'PV' since she was 14.

"The wonderful and crazy thing about PV is you don't know what you're going to get," Salas said. "It all depends on the weather and how generous or how challenging the pin placements are going to be. So we have a different game plan this year. And considering it's been a really wet, cold winter, the golf course is going to play very, very differently. So just kind of take the punches as they go and try to make the least amount of mistakes."

For tickets and more information, click here for the tournament website.

It's great that Wilshire is continuing its relationship with the LPGA Tour by hosting a new event. It's such a gem, another century-old classic where a winding barranca comes into play on almost every hole. It's one of the few U.S. courses to have hosted the LPGA Tour, PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions. The full field of 144 players will vie for a share of the $3-million purse, one of the LPGA Tour's largest prize funds outside of major championships and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

For tickets and more information, click here for the tournament website.

Buzz is building for this year's U.S. Open. Championships on the West Coast always tend to do well in prime time TV hours back east, but its the new venue that's really driving the anticipation. Gil Hanse completely restored LACC's North course, another Thomas/Bell creation. After such a wet winter, it will be interesting to see how firm and fast the USGA can get conditions running.

We'll be doing a more extensive hole-by-hole preview of the course leading up to the championship.

For tickets and more information, click here for the tournament website.

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