Special Places - Riviera Country Club

A strong field will be teeing it up this week at Riviera Country Club in the ultra-affluent Pacific Palisades district of Greater Los Angeles for the last leg of the West Coast Swing. Headlining will be world no 4 Phil Mickelson and fan favourite Fred Couples as 23 Major champions look to best defending champion Steve Stricker and FedEx Cup points leader Mark Wilson. The Northern Trust Open, originally the LA Open, dates back to 1926 and is one of the oldest events on the PGA Tour.

The tournament has seen many notable firsts including Jack Nicklaus’ first professional pay cheque, Tiger Wood’s first PGA Tour event and a victory in 1969 by Charles Sifford, the first African-American member of the Tour. Pacific Palisades has been called home by the likes of President Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brad Pitt, and Riviera Country Club’s member’s roll is no less illustrious, having featured Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin and Walt Disney. Weather is always a factor here with winds often sweeping down the canyon and rain a realistic threat at this time of year.

Widely known as Hogan’s alley after Ben Hogan’s three wins and two seconds here in the 1940’s, the Riviera course meanders along a stretch of the Santa Monica Canyon. The design is credited to George C Thomas Jr, but with a big helping hand from iconic golf course architect Alister Mackenzie, whose legacy includes Augusta National, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne.

Playing to a par of 71 over just less than 6700m this picturesque layout has kikuyu fairways and bent grass greens. The round begins with a gentle reachable downhill par 5 that will give up its share of eagles. The uphill 2nd is the toughest hole on the course, a 425m par 4 with out-of-bounds left and trees right from the tee and a well-bunkered green barely eight paces across. Ben Hogan called the tough 215m 4th ‘the best par 3 in America’.

The unforgettable 180m par 3 6th has a two-tier green with a bunker right in the middle. Land on the wrong level and you are faced with putting around or chipping over the bunker. The difficult 440m par 4 12th is probably most notable for Bogey’s tree – named after Humphrey Bogart - guarding the left of the green. One of golf’s most recognisable finishes, the 18th hole with its kidney-shaped green in the natural amphitheatre below the clubhouse is a fitting climax to a great round.