LOS ANGELES – The sun had just set over the canyon and the traffic on Sunset Boulevard was still picking up as Patrick Cantlay stood to 10th tee Thursday at Riviera Country Club.
The temperature had just passed 50 degrees but a steady wind out of the north felt much colder. Under the perfect conditions of the 315-yard 10th A hole in the hole is a carnival ride that is very popular with PGA Tour players and high handlers, but Thursday ‘s early wave at the Genesis Invitational was not a perfect setting.
“I did a big swing and, against landing short of the green, I landed 2 yards on the green and I was dead,” said Cantlay, who fled at 7:13 local time, along with Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa.
In this case, a “dead” was a tee bullet that raced over the planting surface and through a collection area just 66 feet from the hole. His next shot, according to ShotLink, stopped 56 feet from the hole.
“I had to play to 50 feet. Hit a good picture to [56] feet, like a really good picture, and then a three-button, and I didn’t feel like I did anything wrong except that the hole is really hard when it blows down 15 mph, ”he was shocked. it after bogey-5 made the hole. “I’m sure tomorrow I won’t get a little easier and I might do 3.”
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Garden for a garden, the 10thth Riviera has a hole as one of the scariest holes in the game. It’s not as impressive as it is close to a driver and is the only real decision players have to make where they hope to miss the green.
From Thursday ‘s early wave the 60 players technically tried to drive the green with only one, Ryan Armor, reaching the surface. The 10th it is among the most detailed holes in the game but on Day 1 it was turned into a beast by the cold weather and early hour.
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson in fifth group where 10th hole at 7:24 am and couldn’t have been happier with the pair he made.
“I hit 7-wood and hit it pretty much where I wanted it, it was just left of the green. It went a lot further than I thought, ”said Johnson, who opened with 68.“ I was still in a good place. And then the ball just coming out of the rough landed about a short yard where I wanted it. However, it was a tap-in 4 and I will go to 11 and I was very happy with that. ”
What makes No. 10 at Riviera so ‘diabolical’?
In professional golf the wrong side of the draw is always rich. It takes place regularly at the Open Championship with tee times spread over nearly 12 hours and the weather unseen in the UK, but for a few early mornings at Riviera, ending on the sidelines wrong the 10th a hole felt equally unfortunate.
The first five groups of the day played off No. 10 holes together in 3 over par, including No. 2 Rahm (bogey), No. 6 Morikawa (double bogey) and No. 8 Cantlay (bogey) world threesome. The early / late scoring split was expected with the morning wave playing just above par (.05) while the afternoon groups were .139 below par.
Adam Scott, who played alongside Johnson and Bubba Watson, avoided a disaster after driving at the 10th a remaining 70-yard hole of the green sailed.
“I had 75 yards to the place I was trying to hit. Honestly, I found myself in a bad place. It wasn’t terrible. I didn’t hit a really good bullet, but I could be in a much worse place, like a short shot, ”said Scott, who hit his second sight short of the green and went out for something would he say “good 4.” “No. It was a very difficult 10 this morning down from the left. It’s very difficult to find a good place off the tee, honestly.”
Just like finishing on the wrong side of a lottery there are no guarantees that things will go out even for the field. With a two-tee start for Rounds 1 and 2 only half the field will start their rounds on the 10thth hole and Friday’s forecast calls for a slightly warmer situation.
But then Cantlay and the other Early Day 1 starters didn’t complain about their situation, the rub of the greens, the luck of the draw. Not all clichés in golf, however, change the fact that just after sunrise on Thursday the 10thth there was a hole in the animal.