For one, Riviera is home to Ben Hogan’s first national championship (1948 U.S. Open), his back-to-back Los Angeles Open wins (1947­–48), and his incredible post-automobile accident comeback—the epic 1950 L.A. Open loss to Sam Snead when rains forced the two legends to return a week after the final round for a playoff.

But the Riviera story isn’t just about Hogan. The L.A. Open is one of the PGA Tour’s showcase events, a favorite among players. Just about every great American player has won at Riviera—the notable exception is Tiger Woods.

What has attracted the greatest names in golf to Riviera since the course opened on June 24, 1927? Contrary to conventional wisdom, the rocky, dry riverbed chosen for the Riviera course was not ideal for golf. Wealthy amateur architect George Thomas toured it at the behest of Los Angeles Athletic Club founder Frank Garbutt, who had asked Thomas to build the prominent downtown club a first-rate course for its new “countryside” development.

Thomas was underwhelmed by the site, but he eventually agreed after receiving assurances that his cohort and construction supervisor, Billy Bell, would have access to all resources required to solve any soil and drainage problems. A year of arduous construction with a massive crew, soil trucked in from miles away, Bell’s engineering instincts, and Thomas’ love of heroic holes combined to create what Ben Crenshaw calls the greatest “made” course in the world.

The strategy required by Thomas and Bell’s massive bunkering survives today to create a still-fascinating, albeit different, test, emphasizing the aerial game more than Thomas and Bell probably planned. 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