Riviera Does It Again

Every year at this time, there is a PGA Tour event held at the Riviera Country Club. It used to be called the L.A. Open. Sometimes, a sponsor takes over and changes the name to THEIR company. It used to be the Nissan Open, but that sponsor moved on and a new one took over. For many years now, it has been the Northern Trust Open. Next year, it will be the some form of Hyundai Open. Even though it was the Northern Trust Open this year, it will always be the L.A. Open to most people who live in that city.

Last year, I wrote about the tournament and the course in a February 20, 2015 article titled “The Riv.” In it, I talked about the connection this tournament and course has with the playing of The Masters in April. If you haven’t read the article yet, I suggest you read it. Here is the article from the archives.

In it, you can see that the players that play well at Riviera (including winning there) tend to also play well at Augusta National (and win there too), not to mention at the rest of the majors. In it, you can see the tie ins between the two tournaments, and the fact that since 1980, you could see that Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Fred Couples, Craig Stadler, Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Bubba Watson have won both L.A. Opens AND Masters championships, sometimes winning both in the same year.

In fact, when you look back at the last few years of The Masters, you can see that even more evidently. The 2010 Masters was won by Phil Mickelson, who won the L.A. Open at Riviera in 2008 and 2009. The 2011 Masters was won by South African Charl Schwarzel, who has played and done well there (though hasn’t won at L.A.). The 2012 AND 2014 Masters was won by Bubba Watson, who also won at Riviera in 2014. Adam Scott won the 2013 Masters, and had won at L.A. in 2005. Jordan Spieth won the 2015 Masters, and finished tied for fourth one stroke out of the playoff that same year at Riviera.

So we’ve just had the 2016 Northern Trust (L.A. Open) come to an exciting conclusion, and we have indeed seen the magic of Riviera strike once again. Four of the leading players in the world, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott and Bubba Watson, all likely contenders for this year’s Masters, were within a stroke or so of the lead at Riviera as the final Sunday started to unfold. (By the way, 2015 player of the year Jordan Spieth shot an opening round 79 and missed the cut. This course is NOT an easy course when you are off of your game)

McIlroy fell out off of the leaderboard with a bunch of bogies. Dustin Johnson never really got it going, while at the same time, never really faltered much either. He finished in a tie for fourth, two strokes back. The tournament was
going to come down to the two world class players Bubba Watson and Adam Scott, going against this week’s not so highly ranked tour player/contender having his greatest of weeks, Jason Kokrak, battling for the title.

At one point on the back nine, Kokrak led by two, -15 to -13. On some courses, that would mean he was on his way to the title, but that’s not the case with Riviera (or Augusta National, for that matter). At Riviera, EVERY hole on the back nine is potentially a tough par, with the very real possibility of a bogey out there for everyone who’s not on top of their game. But, the course also has that amazing ability to reward the great shot with a birdie. So a two shot swing coming from a birdie from one player and a bogey from the other is always possible at any time.

The course rewards the great shot from the player playing really well, and it jumps up and smacks down the player who makes the slightest of mistakes. (this course HAS hosted a U.S. Open and two PGA’s) Kokrak slipped up with a bogey on the difficult 15th, while Bubba Watson tied him at -14 with a birdie on the par three 16th. Watson’s monster power game got him onto the long par five 17th in two just as Adam Scott was holing out a miracle chip on 18 to go 14 under. With Kokrak settling for par on 17, it was Watson who two-putted his way to a birdie to go to -15.

With Watson leading by one at the 18th hole, Watson and Kokrak bombed their drives and both put their second shots about 12 feet away (which pretty much eliminated Adam Scott’s -14 at that point since Watson was almost guaranteed to two-putt his way to a par). Either Kokrak would make his putt and force a playoff, or Watson would two-putt his way to the win. Kokrak just missed his putt and Bubba Watson won the 2016 L.A. Open in a tight, near major-like tournament that was a great warmup (or is it a foreshadow of things to come) for this year’s Masters.

So, Riviera has done it again. It has proven itself to be very worthy of being a “must attend tournament” for players who want to prepare themselves to win a major. It was won by a former Masters champion and top five player in the world. Even though it was only set up to be played like a regular tour event, it has played just like a major. There is a reason this course usually ranks among the top 50 golf courses in the world every time any respected publication has a poll. It’s really good.