US Open barranca offers beauty, danger at LA Country Club

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The word of the week at the U.S. Open is barranca. It stems from the Spanish word meaning cliff, precipice, gully or ravine. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a deep gully or arroyo with steep sides.” At Los Angeles Country Club, the barranca, lined with sand and dotted with native grasses and ball-entangling plants, winds through most of the first nine holes and part of the back nine, as well. Much like the seawall cliffs at Pebble Beach or the church pew bunker at Oakmont, it’s the barranca that stands out as the most feared and talked-about feature for the U.S. Open’s first return to LA since 1948.