Some more thoughts on Riviera's Underrated Holes -
So much of the Riviera's great details lie dormant as the equipment boom and some changes in the course have us just walking past the brushstrokes of genius by Thomas.
Examples:
#3 - The fairway bunker that has been referenced is a good demonstration of something he did in several places on the course, which is to add a distance kicker for successfully challenging a bunker or bump that would have a downhill grade on its backside. It would give you extra runout on your tee shot. If you avoided taking on the bunker or bump, you would end up with a longer shot and a less favorable angle. Currently, while you still want to be left, the tee shot just spits on the kicker as it flies over it. In High School in 1980, it was a bitch to fly that bunker into the afternoon's 2 club wind, but if you did, you got to hit a long iron into the green with the gap between the greenside bunkers set up well for your use. If you went right, you were left with a wood into the green with a forced carry over the right side giant bunker. Thomas applied the same strategic approach to the tee shot on #2, except he placed a big hump on the left side of the fairway instead of a bunker. Same strategy, but a different land form that felt like variety.
#5 - This is a very Underrated Hole that is also dormant. Back to 1980 - you used to walk just off the 4th green and go straight down the very steep, pushed up back side to the Blue tee on 5, which was the #1 handicap hole playing about 440 yds. It also was about 5 yards below its current grade. This gave you a shot of about 230 yards to the top of the hill on the drive into a 2 club wind. The hill acted as a governor to limit distance on the tee shot, which would leave you a shot of about 210 yards, downhill into the wind to the large, right to left sloping green. There is a small Alps-like hill that guards a bank that used to be cut at fairway length and would throw a ball hit with a 4 wood onto the green if you successfully challenged the little Alps.
All those elements are still in place, but in 1981, Ted Robinson was hired by the then owners, The LA Athletic Club, to reduce the steep descent to the 5th tee, because of potential liability if someone fell down that hill as had happened in another instance walking down to the 1st fairway. Robinson built this huge gradual, elevated tee complex that moved the tees up about 25 yards. That beast of a tee complex stood for several years before being torn down, and then changed one more time in an effort to get it back to its original spot, but it is still about 20 yards in front of the original position. Add to that the equipment factor and what once was a Driver, 4 Wood hole is now Driver, 8 iron, because everybody just flies over the governor off of the tee and nobody has a reason to challenge the Alps to take advantage of that bank shot, as an 8 iron wouldn't trigger the release like a 4 wood or long iron would anyway. Don't know if these ideas could be recaptured by pushing the tee back to its original spot, which would require regrading the back of 4, but there is a very Underrated Hole laying there waiting to be found again.
I agree with Tom about 9 and 15. Still get a big rush as I walk onto the tee at 9 and look at the symmetry of how the hole lays out and its relationship to the grand Clubhouse. The green on 15 is my favorite on the course. A Biarritz spun and set on a diagonal, and placed on a par 4.