14 June 2023 , 19:05
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The Playboy Mansion is sure to provide quite the distraction for golfers teeing it up at the US Open this week, but perhaps not in the way fans might have thought.
The third major of the year begins at Los Angeles Country Club on Thursday, with expectations high as the course hosts the tournament for the first time in its history.
The 7,530-yard course is on prime property in the heart of Beverly Hills, with some famous neighbours including music legend Lionel Richie and the infamous Playboy Mansion, the home of Hugh Hefner until shortly before his death in 2017.
The lavish pad in the centre of Tinseltown, which was sold to Daren Metropoulos, the son of a billionaire, for $100m (£78.9m) in 2016, was home to wild parties hosted by Hefner with "playmates" from the nude magazine. These days, Metropoulos says the house is used for "corporate activities".
The property includes a pool, spa and arcade room among other luxuries, including a zoo that remains there six years after Hefner's death, and the collection of animals is known to be rather noisy.
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The zoo includes monkeys peacocks, cranes, parrots, pelicans and flamingos, which will not be visible from the course at LACC, but the golfers will be able to hear them over the hum of the crowd.
Former PGA Tour player Smylie Kaufman, who is a pundit for NBC Sports and Golf Channel, walked the course earlier this week and posted a video from the 14th tee, which neighbours the menagerie at the Playboy mansion.
Holly, one of Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends in 2006, feeding the monkeys at the Playboy Mansion zoo. (HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)Kaufman was following a practice group of Justin Thomas, Jordan Speith, Max Homa and Rickie Fowler, and as Speith struck his tee shot there was plenty of noise coming from the other side of the fence.
Still, it might be a welcome change of soundtrack for the world's leading golfers rather than the usual inane shouts from the crowd as they chase one of the biggest prizes in the sport over the weekend.
World number one Scottie Scheffler is the favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday, although the American will be desperate for his stone-cold putter to quickly warm up at LACC.
Masters champion Jon Rahm is well fancied, too, while world number three Rory McIlroy hopes to put nine years of pain at the majors behind him and finally win a big one after landing his fourth and most recent in 2014.
But it promises to be one of the more unpredictable US Opens in recent years, with the venue new to the rotation of courses that hosts the tournament.
As a result, there is no precedent of how it will play over the four days, although it is expected to provide a typically brutal US Open test with juicy rough and sloping greens and fairways.