I've long dreamt of seeing Riviera in the "flesh". My countryman Steve Elkington won the PGA Championship there when I was 12, just as I was starting to play golf. Later I learned it was where Ben Hogan won his maiden US Open and where Tiger Woods played his first Tour event. In the current decade Adam Scott and Robert Allenby won LA Opens there and then as I became more interested in golf design, I found out about George Thomas...
There's probably not a course I had anticipated playing more than Riviera and now there isn't a course I have enjoyed playing more, either.
Of course it was a dream come true to hit a drive from the elevated 1st tee and then play the likes of the 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th 16th and 18th, but I was equally blown away by 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15. It struck me late in the round that perhaps a way to identify the very best courses is by the quality of their weakest holes, and there wasn't a single hole at Riviera I thought was "weak".
Overall there was just an array of brilliant greens (1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16), exciting, tempting and demanding tee shots (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18) and shots that you get a rush from (tee shot at 1, approach to 2, tee shot at 4, approach to 5, tee shot on 6, the whole of 7 and 8, approach to 9, the whole of 10, approach to 11, approach to 12, all of 13, approach to 15, tee shot at 6, approach to 17 and the whole of 18).
For a long time I have read about the brilliance of the 10th hole. I'd be kidding myself to say that after one play I understand its greatness, but I loved what I saw and was amazed by the options I saw from the tee and as I stood behind it, imagining where I'd want to be for different pins and it just seemed an absolute Rubix Cube of a golf hole, probably one of the best holes I have ever played and yet it's on dead flat ground and just 315 yards long!
The 4th was another that grew an extra leg seeing it first-hand. The bunker short is an absolute brute and the kick pad up the right is massive and gives a huge kick if you commit to playing out the right and using the slope.
I loved how the barranca was used on the second shots at 1 and 11, how it flanks the drive at 7 and cuts in so close to the 13th green. The grass was super long, too, making it a real hazard in the absence of water.
Lastly, the bunkering. It has to be seen to be believed. Big and deep, perfectly placed. They are bold, dominating the holes in the absence of dramatic land and working in tandem with the shaping Thomas and Bell put in, giving you a slightly uncomfortable lie or stance more often that you'd realise.
When you add to that the LA weather, the fantastic clubhouse up on the hill and the setting down in the canyon surrounded by multi-million-dollar homes up above, Riviera might just be the perfect place to play golf, and I don't say that lightly.
The 1st hole. The drive is as exhilerating as it looks (especially having stood there watching the sun rise behind the green!) and the green/bunker combo at the business end is just as awesome.
1st green from short/right.
The 4th hole, a fantastic Redan with a bunker short that ought to have its own zipcode and a massive kickpad that feeds to a steep R-to-L green. And at 236 yards it takes some taming.
The approach to the 5th. After a drive requiring a fade you find yourself on a hook lie trying to work out how much of the mound (Alps mound?) on the right to fly over. The mound is man-made, but ties in brilliantly with the natural movement of this hole right on the canyon edge.
The 6th. The green shaping makes the hole work so well. I left myself on the fringe with the bunker directly between me and the hole and had 3-4 options on how to get there.
From the front right fringe.
From back right.
The barranca flanks the right of the 7th from tee to green.
Approiaching the 9th. Just an awesome sight that makes you feel amazing inside.
The 10th. You can't believe how narrow the green is until you see it, and with the slope it plays even narrower than its 7 paces.
In the LHS of the fairway, the green is deep and it's all about being straight.
On the right, it's all about distance control, or you'll land short and pull up in the kikuyu or land pin high and spring down the slope to a chipping area at the back.
The 12th green set just over the barranca.
The 15th green, like a stretched Biarritz greenn turned 60 degrees to the right at the end of this dogleg right par four.
The 16th, a small green ringed by sand, but only a shortish iron. What a great hole to come across at this point in the round/match, with a monster par five and par four to follow it.
The home hole. I had never understood the ridge was THAT high (this pic doesn't do it justice - and how good is Michael Robin's position at the top?!). The second shot is just magic, in an incomperable setting - a perfect end to such a brilliant golf course.
