The Course Report
Riviera
About Riviera
For every casual player looking for a course that fits their own similar style of play, this is it. You know, you weekend hacks that pull driver almost every hole and then hope to dial in your approach for a green in regulation (we know that rarely happens…just ask Max Homa to rate your swing) Regardless, this course is as traditional as it goes, but you need all facets of your game dialed in to be a winner at the Genesis.
Much talk this week will be the length of the course, and how you need distance to thrive. Yet, we have seen winners here that don’t necessarily dominate with length off the tee. Examples of average distance players are our past two tournament champions Max Homa and Adam Scott. Conversely, three-time tournament champion and Dustin Johnson would beg that distance argument does ring true.
Yet, this often leads to the debate that one must add SG: OTT in order to encompaass all of the key elements gained when hitting from the tee box. The irony is that of the past 7 winners, only one champion gained over a stroke OTT and that was Dustin Johnson. While I wouldn’t mitigate distance as important, there are much more important stats to weight here at Riviera.
Success really stems from approach, around the green, and being able to putt successfully on these fast greens. Again, we are looking at some simple breakdowns, but this has been the clear indicator of success for most top-20 finishers. Yet, the biggest adjustment for these players is the Kikuyu grass that surrounds the greens. The grass is spongy and has the uncanny ability to stop a ball dead in its tracks. The other grasses we’ve seen on tour give a bounce or two and allow even shorter shots to eventually roll onto the green. Kikuyu is different in that you might only see the slightest hop forward and a ball settling as it would in a bunker. Now this causes even further disruption for players.
So how can we make it even more difficult? Easy. The Poa greens get bumpy by the afternoon tee times, and texture is something that players will have to manage.
The bump and run is essentially out of play this weekend. Players will need to utilize spin, touch, and feel to place their errant shots in a position to avoid a bogey or worse. Sounds easy right? You’re going to get inconsistent lies in Kikuyu grass, and it will cause plenty of headaches for players attempting to score here at Riviera.
Take a trip to Datagolf and you’ll see that Riviera ranks as the 5th or 6th highest predictive course on tour. While predictive, the Kikuyu makes the course such a hard track to compare. You simply don’t see the spongy grass so dominant anywhere on Tour. For overall feel I’m looking at courses like TPC Sawgrass and TPC Scottsdale, and for the responsiveness of the greens I would look at a course like Augusta National. I would also add Torrey Pines TPC San Antonio to the mix with the course style as well as difficulty.
One of the fan favorite holes that we will see this weekend will be the 10th. It is a straight up risk-reward type hole and has been constantly revered throughout the tournament history. So, what’s the deal? The green is very drivable, but we all know how hard it is to be pinpoint with the big wood. If your golfer is starting on 10 in round 1 or 2, and they bogey, don’t think the weekend is over. It is one of the tougher holes in all of golf because of the temptation to score better than birdie.
Hole 10 aside, this isn’t an easy track. It often ranks in the top-10 hardest courses that Tour players will see this year.
Riviera C.C.
Architect: George C. Thomas (1926), Tom Fazio (2008)
Greens: Poa Annua
Green Size: 7,500 sq. feet – Average Greens
Stimpmeter: 11.5-12.5 – Fast Green Speeds
Length: 7,322 yards- Par 71
Water Hazards: None
Bunkers: 58 Bunkers
Weather Forecast
Nuggets and Tidbits
- Bubba Watson has won here three times, and these victories were all fairly recent. This includes 2018,2016 and 2014.
- Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are arguably the two greatest golfers in the history of the sport. Yet, they have one unique thing in common. Neither player has ever won at Riviera.
- Ben Hogan, another name we add to the list of greatest of all time, has had much success at Riviera. In fact, his success there has led to the nickname “Hogan’s Alley.” Hogan won 2 Los Angeles Opens as well as a U.S. Open title at Riviera.
- Course history could be an added bonus here as players will continue to be without greens books from years past. This often forgotten in DFS or gambling circles, but this change has only been a part of the PGA Tour for one year.
- I’m going to continue looking at potential caddy changes over the week to see if any specific player has an edge with a new bag man.
- Winners typically have a massive advantage in GIR’s
- Speaking of GIR%, the average for the Genesis is roughly 57.5%. That is nearly 10% points lower than tour average. This shouldn’t be a surprise, but scrambling percentage is 60%, which is 3.5% higher than tour average.
- Driving accuracy is at roughly 55% compared to the PGA Tour average of 63%.
Approach Shot Distribution
Past Winners
A wire-to-wire win at the Genesis is so rare. The last time that this was accomplished was back in 1969. Enter Joaquin Niemann.
Niemann simply dominated the filed from tee-to-green with just dialed in approach shots, a perfectly balanced putter, and ran away with the entire tournament.
This was Homa’s second win on the PGA Tour, and he did just enough to outlast Tony Finau in a playoff.
The course felt like home to Homa, as this was the first golf tournament he had ever attended as a child, and was a favorite course of his as he grew up in the nearby area. It all came together for Homa.
This was a Sunday that had plenty of players in play for the Championship. In t end, Scott made just enough clutch putts to win the tournament by two strokes.
Scott was being chased by the likes of Matsuyama, Kuchar, Kang McIIroy and DeChambeau but his bogeys were mitigated with his bounce back game.
Wind and weather created a very long round for Holmes. Yet, his “marathon”round catipulted him to the top as he was able to catch leader Justin Thomas.
Very rarely are you going to catch JT when he has a 4-strok lead, but Holmes was able to score enough to build momentum for the win.
This was Watson’s thrid time winning the Genesis, and a very emitonal victory.
The year prior Watson had been deadling with mental health issues, and even menitnoed that his use of a neon ball was part of his coping strategy. Watson looked good as new and so did the shape of his shots.
It took a 3-man playoff, but Johnson beat Louis Ossthuizen and Marc Leishman by shooting a 15, 1 under in a four hole playoff.
Johnson was a surprise win as just the week before his prep came in Illinois at the John Deere Classic. This was Johnson’s second major win, and his first Claret Jug.
Entering with a six-stroke lead over the field, McIIroy went from dominant to just hanging on. Still, no golfer ever got withing two strokes the entire day, and he held his composure despite struggles off the tee and on the greens.
In winning, McIIroy became the seventh wire-to-wire winner in Open Championship history.
After winning the Scottish Open the week prior, Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes and became the Open Champion.
To this point, Phil had come close to winning, but had often doubted his abilites on links style courses.
Els began Sunday 6 shots back, but still clinched the vicotry after Adam Scott imploded.
Els’ 68 was a comeback of epic proportions when you consider the fact that Scott was still winning by 4 strokes on the 15th tee.