The Los Angeles Country Club team honored for U.S. Open work

The USGA presented Chris Wilson, The Los Angeles Country Club’s director of golf courses and grounds, with the E.J. Marshall Platter at the conclusion of the 2023 U.S. Open Championship. Created in 2022, the platter recognizes leaders in golf course management who demonstrate commitment, expertise and outstanding collaboration with the USGA to present a well-maintained course, worthy of hosting a national championship and the world’s best players. The club’s entire course maintenance team and volunteers were also recognized during the 18th green ceremony following play.

Wilson, a 20-year GCSAA member, is currently serving his eighth year at LACC. Together with his team, Wilson worked alongside the USGA’s senior director of championship agronomy, Darin Bevard, for the last year to prepare the 7,423-yard, par-70 course for last week’s championship. A Kansas native, Wilson served as an assistant superintendent at Southern Hills during both the 2001 U.S. Open and 2007 PGA Championship before joining the LACC team.

The course features Tifway II Bermudagrass fairways and creeping bentgrass greens. Tifway II was developed cooperatively by the USGA Green Section, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Georgia Coastal Plain Station and the Department of Energy. The commitment toward water resiliency was part of the overall 2009-10 restoration plan of the course intended to restore many of the classic features of the original George Thomas design.

The platter’s namesake was the chair of the green committee at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in 1920. After he approached the USGA and the Department of Agriculture for help at the course, the USGA formed the Green Section to provide course care expertise to golf facilities.