The grand old dame of Southern California golf courses demanded tribute from the horde of touring pros who sought her glories this weekend and she would not be denied.
The lowest score of the final round Sunday was 3 under par 68, well above the 64’s and 65’s scratched out by players earlier in the week. At the start of Sunday play, three players were tied for the lead at -10.
Adam Scott’s winning tally was only one better than that, a masterful one under score of 70 for a 273 total for the tournament.
After a couple of weeks traipsing through a clutch of less than memorable desert courses, the PGA Tour reinvigorated itself with it’s annual visit to a classic course from the golden age of golf course architecture. Opened in 1926, Riviera Country Club has hosted three major championships and has been a regular stop on tour for fifty seven years. The tour would do well to play more often on design gems like Riviera.
Known as a ball striker’s course, Riviera demands a properly placed shot into the fairway to give the player a chance to hold the sloped and rock hard greens. And if you miss the fairway it’s a real crap shoot playing from the dense kikuyu rough. This is a grass that is unique on tour – it’s origin is African and it invaded the golf course from nearby polo fields. Those Hollywood celebrities have plenty of games to play out there.
Strategic play is the hallmark of a great golf course and any player not using his head out there gets a swift kick in the hindquarters or some other unwelcome spot. Players need to move the ball both left and right off the tee and typically must fly the ball to the green. Shots landing short of the green get swallowed up by the kikuyu with no bounce forward. It’s like hitting into a wet pillow – splat.
Riviera is home to two of the most familiar and unusual holes in all of championship golf.
The par 3 sixth hole sports a large sloping putting surface with a bunker dab smack in the middle of the green. Each year a number of players must pitch over that bunker and this year a disheartened Rory McIlroy was forced into that play after flaring a 6 iron well right of the hole position.
Number 10 is a short par 4 hole. I hesitate to call it a driveable par 4 since so few players that try to drive it are successful. At just over 300 hundred yards in length it’s a temptress to touring pros yet it produces as many bogeys as birdies. The hole’s defense lies in it’s narrow, sloping green that runs at a 45 degree diagonal from left to right, front to back. And, of course, it’s surrounded by bunkers.
It’s a treat to see the smoke rise from players as they contemplate their angle of attack or try to keep their abusive mutterings away from the TV microphones after hitting their approach over the green into another unplayable lie.
Although the Riviera kikuyu rough is hell to play from, the kikuyu fairways are a dream to play off of.
Those dreams turn to nightmares for most players once they reach the greens which are an unruly mixture of kikuyu and poa annua grass. Poa annua grass is notorious for diverting well stroked golf balls especially as the day wears on due to rapid growth of it’s irregularly shaped blades.
Year after year Riviera produces the most three putt greens from within five feet on tour. If you or I three putted from five feet we’d go ballistic. Imagine what it does a touring pro.
In addition to the kinky kikuyu grass, Riviera sports a legion of unusual Eucalyptus trees. These white bark giants are naked sentinels lining most fairways and greens. It’s too early for leaves to sprout and it looks like many have been frightened and are planning to beat feet.
A great course deserves a great finish and Riviera’s 18th hole delivers in spades. This slight dogleg right has a fairway not visible from the tee as players must drive over a fifty foot high ridge. Left of the canted fairway is a deep rough covered hill while right slides off to a grove of Eucalyptus trees. The green is in a natural amphitheater surrounded on three side with steep banking. This was the original stadium hole decades before anyone thought about it.
Nine of the games top ten players made the trip to Riviera this past week and they, and the rest of the field, served up some splendid shotmaking and great drama. Adam Scott’s play was a thing of beauty and he’s a deserving champ this year.
Riviera is a champ every year.
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