The Riv

I love the late, great sportswriter Jim Murray. He once did one of his excellent columns about the great L.A. area golf course Riviera Country Club, the host of the Northern Trust (L.A.) Open. I put L.A. in there because sponsors of tournaments seem to think they own all of the history of the tournaments they sponsor these days, even though in a few years, they might abandon their sponsorship (ahem, cough, Nissan Open, cough, cough) and someone else would have to step in and sponsor that tournament. And then the new people too would then try to claim all of the history of a course and a tournament for THEIR own biased, corporate agenda purposes.

Jim Murray’s article was about the course itself, a hole by hole breakdown of Riviera’s unique course layout, first designed and put together in 1926, in golf’s Golden Era of Course Architecture. The course was characterized as the Grande Dame of American golf courses and he emphasized how difficult it could be.

My take on Riviera is that the course isn’t just a difficult and beautiful course (it is both), but that it is a necessary playing challenge for golfers interested in winning majors. Everyone says they are interested in winning majors, but do they realize the best way to prepare yourself to win a major isn’t by entering your average, nondescript tournament played on the latest newfangled course design? No, the way to prepare yourself to win a major is by playing (and sometimes winning) at Riviera. If Riviera was good enough for Sam Snead and Ben Hogan (former L.A. Open winners) to get their games up for majors, it should be mandatory participation for everyone else.

(Historical fact – the greatest major winners in history, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, have both NEVER won a tournament at Riviera.)

Riviera has hosted a U.S. Open in 1948 (won by Ben Hogan, thus the course nickname of Hogan’s Alley), a PGA in 1983 (won by Hal Sutton barely holding off Jack Nicklaus) and a PGA in 1995 (won by Steve Elkington in a playoff over Colin Montgomerie). The course HAS been “major quality” before during those championships. The point is also being made that the course is also “major quality” during each staging of the Northern Trust (I call it the L.A. Open).

Going back in time a little bit, Dave Stockton won an L.A. Open at Riviera in 1974 and a PGA major in 1976. We will see that a LOT of great players that won at L.A. Opens at Riviera also did quite well in majors too.

Hale Irwin won at Riviera in 1976. He won US. Opens in 1974 and 1979 and 1990.

Lanny Watkins won a PGA in 1977. He won L.A. Opens at Riviera in 1979 and 1985.

Tom Watson won L.A. in 1980 and 1982. He won a whole lot of majors, including U.S. Open and British Open in 1982.

Johnny Miller won at L.A. in 1981 and also won two majors.

Mark Calcaveccia won L.A. in 1989 and won his British Open major in that same year.

Fred Couples – L.A. Open and Masters winner in 1992.

Tom Kite – U.S. Open in 1992 and L.A. Open in 1993.

Corey Pavin – L.A. Open and U.S. Open winner, 1995.

Craig Stadler – an L.A. Open and a Masters.

Nick Faldo – Masters in 1996 and L.A. Open in 1997.

Ernie Els – 1999 L.A. Open – four time major winner.

Mike Weir – 2003 L.A. Open and Masters winner.

Adam Scott – won an L.A. Open and a Masters.

Phil Mickelson – won twice at L.A. Won three Masters and a total of five majors.

Bill Haas won at L.A. in 2012 and also won the 2011 Fed Ex Cup (not a major, but it sure pays like about ten of them).

Bubba Watson won both the L.A. Open at Riviera and the Masters at Augusta National in 2014.

And it’s not just the players who win at Riviera that win majors. Players that play well there pick up a lot of the right competitive “stuff” that helps them do well and sometimes top fives at Riviera help players win those majors also.

As of the writing of this column, the first two rounds of the Northern Trust (L.A.) Open are in the books. Some of the players doing really well so far this week (Retief Goosen, Bubba Watson, Vijay Singh, Angel Cabrera) have already won majors. Some of the others doing well (Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth, Ryan Moore, Graham DeLaet) could easily be classified as players who are “major worthy,” and who are the types knocking on the doors of majors as we speak.

Yes, sometimes a player who is not a big name has had the greatest week of their golfing lives and jumped in there and won either an L.A. Open or a major, but that is mostly because the players that are on the PGA Tour really are so good that they are all capable of doing just that.

But mostly, you see that the golfer who is good enough to win at Riviera is also good enough to win a major. Or, they learn how to be good enough to win a major by getting good enough to win on a quality, tough track like Riviera. Either way, Riviera is MAJOR worthy as a golf course. And, the golfer who wants a great career and who does not work Riviera into their schedule, is the one who is the real loser.