Golfers can’t agree on anything. Back bands or cavity. Transfer or interlock. Tiger or Phil. Astar no rollback.
If you spend any time online following golfers, you will quickly realize that a person’s unique way of talking about the game (“It’s not a golf word!”) Can be such a hateful thing. give other golf fans who you think were someone’s grandmother just been asked to repair her own tire or open her own door.
One thing we can agree on is Riviera Country Club. Every golfer loves Riviera. How can you not? Riviera, nowadays, is perfect. It’s not too long a golf course, but it still goes up the best in the world every year. It’s not grand, in the traditional sense, with sea views or mountain views, but it’s still beautiful. It is a golf course without penalty risks that still makes a player feel like he is trying to avoid the big number.
So why is it almost 30 years since we last saw the best players in the world take on Riviera in a prime tournament position?
It’s asinine, really, when you think about it. With two major tournaments kicking off in about a year in the United States, he seems determined to avoid a return to the Riviera.
The last US open here? This was the only one, in ’48, when “Dewey Defeats Truman” was the earliest of all early calls. The last PGA Tournament? That came in 1995, when Tiger was still a teenager, Dustin Johnson had just turned 11 and Bryson DeChambeau was about to see a No. 2 candle on his birthday cake.
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It seems to be even crazier when you dive into what today’s players have to say about Riviera Country Club.
“You look at a great golf course and it tests every scene, does it test everything you need?” Collin Morikawa, the ruling PGA champion, said this week. “That’s what Riviera does. You hit every scene out here, you hit every draw, you hit fashion, branches, long iron, 3-woods, everything, and yes I think that’s what makes a great golf course. ”
How about the best speaker of golf courses among today’s players?
“This is one of my favorite things in the whole world,” Jordan Spieth said in 2015. “This is one of the few with his past history, no matter what. not only the heroes, but only those who walked those fair paths. ”
Spieth would know. His legend began to grow at Riviera in 2012, when he hosted an NCAA men’s tournament. Spieth sought to play his new teammate Justin Thomas, who last won the Haskins Award as Player of the Year, in the finals. “Can you match me to Justin?” Spieth asked his coach, John Fields. “I know he’s a good player, but I think I can get into his head. ”
Spieth shook a 4-iron on the 15th hole, one of the strongest par 4s each year on the PGA Tour, on track to beat Thomas and help lead Texas to the title over Alabama.
What about an event that has been recognized as a major champion for decades, the U.S. Amateur? In the 2017 tournament game, Doug Ghim – also from Texas – appeared ready to put the Havemeyer Cup over his hearth as he was 2 up with two to play. That’s when Doc Redman upgraded his game to meet the club’s history.
What makes No. 10 at Riviera so ‘diabolical’?
Eagles sophomore Clemson at par-5 17th and birdied the 18thth to force 37th toll. And what better hole to test the oldest tree in America than the par-4 10th. The diabolical hole caught Ghim out of position and Redman was to fly home with a little something extra as a carry.
These times are not coincidences. Augusta National doesn’t usually finish the second nine on Sunday by chance. It happens because the course was designed for monumental moments and a complete collapse. The golf course is hustle.
Riviera can be spoken in a similar tone.
This is when I remind you that Riviera will be hosting the ’28 Olympics. That will feel great, as it should, and there could be Wimbledon-hosting-the-2012-Olympic vibrations.
But that is seven years away. That’s another generation that misses out on Riviera as the canvas for the biggest golf events.
The U.S. Open is scheduled through 2027. No Riviera. The PGA Tournament is scheduled through 2029. No Riviera.
The USGA visited the Riviera in 1998, for the US Open. It was won, rightly so, by the all-time senior, Hale Irwin. History often strikes with history at Riviera. And last year, Riviera was considered another site for the U.S. Open when dates were turned around due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a debate on the December U.S. opening in December and the weather being a prominent issue at Winged Foot, Riviera was the West Coast jewel.
“We were honored that Riviera stepped up to offer their incredible course to host the U.S. Open this year if required,” USGA brand chief executive Craig Annis told Golfweek in 2020. “They’ve been an amazing partner and we’re fascinated with the potential to go back for several years, but we couldn’t figure out how to make it any less. . This situation could be ideal with the circumstances. ”
The U.S. Open eventually competed in September and Winged Foot was a great host. But getting to know Riviera was considered – in the moment of knowledge – as another site saying everything about its ancestry.
It’s time to get a major champion back to the Riviera. As Annis said, it would take real planning and force the USGA or PGA of America to be creative considering the minimum footprint the course allows, but logistics should not stand in history.
If we keep waiting, we will see another generation miss out on this opportunity. Dustin Johnson turns 37 this summer. Bubba Watson is 42. Adam Scott’s prime years appear behind him as well. They all won Tour events at Riviera. They would all have had a chance to compete in a prime spot there.
But none of them got the chance. And they are not alone.
Riviera is too good not to be involved in listing upcoming major heroes. Every year we leave the West Coast swing thinking this. So, let’s end the conversations and start the activities.