Brad and I like to do a golf trip every year. This year, we decided to go to Northern Michigan. It was going to be hard to surpass the experience of our last two trips – The Monterey Peninsula and Bandon Dunes. In fact, I’m not sure anywhere, outside of a trip to Scotland or Ireland, would compare to those locations, each of which I would highly recommend. Northern Michigan, on the other hand, wasn’t anywhere near the top of my list of golf destinations. In fact, it wasn’t even on my list. Needless to say, my expectations were pretty low.

For the trip, we did a little research, broke out Golf Digest’s list of top public golf courses, and did some asking around. We put together a list of courses that included Forest Dunes, Garland Lodge & Golf Resort, Grand Traverse Resort, and Arcadia Bluffs.

Before getting into the details, let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised.

The moment I heard that the USGA had chosen Los Angeles Country Club to host the Mens US Open Golf Championship, I knew I wanted to go. I just had to given how close I live to the course. I’d been to a major golf tournament venue before, but that was a practice round at the Masters back in 2018. It was an over-the-top experience, but I wanted to attend a major during the tournament rounds, and the US Open has been an event on my “to attend” bucket list.

When rumors started to swirl that the USGA would be limiting ticket sales to the tournament, I decided to sign-up as a volunteer. One of the perks of volunteering is that you get access to the grounds on both the days of your volunteer shifts and the days you’re off. Yes, I had to pay for the volunteer gear (which, by the way, is very nice), but it’s a small amount compared to what I would have paid for a ticket. In my mind, the cost of the gear and my time would be worth the experience.