Several classic holes define
Riviera. The
opening hole, a
par 5, features a tee 100 feet above the fairway and finishes at
a
boomerang-shaped putting surface. Hogan’s favorite, the 236-yard 4th, is a
modified Redan fronted by the elder statesman of man-made bunkers,
while the
par-3 6th is defined by the oft-bemoaned bunker in the center
of the
green.
No hole in America has aged
better than Thomas’ masterful 10th. No
matter how much the game changes, one
thing is certain: Great players
will fall prey to this wide, flat, well-bunkered
311 yards of pure
strategic golf.
Riviera’s 10th is not complicated: Lay up
down the left side and
leave a short pitch to a bowling-pin shaped green.
Knowing this,
players still cave to temptation and play straight at the green
either
intentionally or via some subconscious refusal to lay up left. The
aggressive route to the hole rarely leads to eagles or even birdies,
and almost
always causes round-deflating pars and bogeys.
Several well-known movies have
also been filmed at Riviera. Pat and
Mike starred members
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, The Caddy
included member Dean Martin, and
Hogan’s dramatic comeback was
re-created at Riviera for Follow the Sun. The 1970s were
marked by
Martin’s high-stakes money games, with the single-digit handicappers
and celebrity antics immortalized in Dan Jenkins’ Dogged Victims of
Inexorable
Fate.
Around that time, longtime pro and
former British Amateur champion
Willie Hunter handed the reins over to son Mac,
who created a
golf-focused atmosphere that produced professionals Barry Jaeckel,
Tony
Sills and LPGA Hall-of-Famer Amy Alcott.
Today
Riviera is
owned by Japanese real-estate tycoon
Noboru Watanabe, who paid $108 million in
1989 to the descendants of
L.A. Athletic Club founder Garbutt. It was a small
price to pay for one
of American golf’s true national treasures.
Par: 71
Yardage: 7,013
Year founded: 1926
Architects: Billy Bell and George C. Thomas
