Lights, camera, action as golf goes to Hollywood

This week the US Open returns for its close-up at the North Course of Los Angeles Country Club

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': Dustin Johnson and his caddie and brother Austin Johnson look on from the second green during a practice round at The Los Angeles Country Club on Monday. Pic: Harry How/Getty Images

Seventy-five years ago in Los Angeles, Elia Kazan’s Gentleman’s Agreement starring Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out The Bishop’s Wife, Great Expectations and the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street at the Academy Awards. A couple months later, across town in Pacific Palisades, Ben Hogan won the first of his four US Opens at Riviera.

In the 75 intervening years, the US Open championship never returned to the second most populace city in the country. Maybe it was the traffic. Or more likely the golf clubs didn’t want to mix with the hoi polloi on their exclusive grounds. Whatever the reason, LA was out of the rotation.