What’s a Barranca? U.S. Open Golfers Hope They Don’t Find Out.
Not many major golf championships have also served as an opportunity for fans to broaden their vocabulary, but this year’s U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club may do just that. Across the four days of the tournament, beginning Thursday, expect broadcasters — and perhaps the golfers — to routinely use a word that may be unfamiliar to many in the international viewing audience.
The word is barranca — pronounced “burr-ahng-kuh” — and it describes a narrow, winding, steep-walled gully or river gorge typically found in Southern California landscapes.
The barranca on the L.A. Country Club’s North Course comes into play repeatedly during the 18 holes, especially as protection in and around the greens. Errant golf balls that land inside the barranca may be unplayable and result in a one-stroke penalty. In other instances, expect to see competitors descending into the barranca with hopes of rescuing their golf balls. It may be a successful recovery ploy, or it might just provide a good photo op — a golfer submerged several feet below the fairway thrashing away to try to make par.
The L.A. Country Club barranca, however, is far from a random curio of the course layout. It serves an important, effective drainage role during rainy seasons and adds a natural, craggy aesthetic to the course design, which originated in the 1920s. By the 2010s, however, the barranca, which meanders throughout the property with tributaries extending in multiple directions, had largely been grassed over. A renovation of the grounds, completed in 2017, by the golf architect Gil Hanse, with his design partner, Jim Wagner, and a design consultant, Geoff Shackelford, restored the barranca to its original appearance — and tactical purpose.
Source: The New York Times
