‘Pure hit and hope’: Riviera’s sodden green flummox PGA Tour shines at Genesis

Ahead of the Genesis Invitational, the Los Angeles area around the Riviera Country Club was lashed by rain. When more rain fell during Thursday’s opening round, Riviera’s putting surfaces became so soft. Collin Morikawa said he had “never seen greens like this.”

He wasn’t the only star confused by Riviera’s soggy vegetables on Thursday. World number 2 Rory McIlroy explained his confusion at the ‘soft’ but ‘fast’ green conditions, while Adam Scott was robbed of a hole-in-one after his tee shot embedded next to the cup.

Here’s what you need to know.

Collin Morikawa about Riviera: ‘I’ve never seen such greens’

Morikawa is currently on a roll. He earned his first win since 2023 with a clutch performance at last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. On Thursday, the two-time major champion opened the Genesis Invitational with a solid three-under 68.

But you would never know that Morikawa was tied for fifth based on his comments about his round Thursday night. Riviera’s extremely soft greens left Morikawa sounding confused.

“I honestly don’t know how they got to this point. Like I’ve never seen greens like that,” Morikawa began during his post-round interview.

He went on to explain how the super-soft conditions allowed him to attack greens from unenviable lies and distances, where he would normally worry about holding the putting surface.

“I mean, you could stop any club from anywhere, you know, from the rough flyer lies. I mean, I think I had two or three shots today, flyers from the first cut and rough and I’m not afraid at all of missing the green,” he explained. “It’s just pure hit and hope.”

Counterintuitively, some greens still played fast despite being extremely boggy and soft. Morikawa saw this reality in action when he watched Rory McIlroy land his approach on 18 at the hole, only to watch it bounce back 30 feet from the front of the green.

“And then, I mean, you saw Rory’s shot on 18, like it’s just unfair, that’s not the right word,” Morikawa explained. “You just really need to get those 30-footers and go make some birdies somewhere else.”

Rory McIlroy explains the ‘tough’ challenge of greens at Genesis Invitational

After his own opening round at the Genesis concluded, McIlroy also spoke to the media and was asked about Morikawa’s comments about the condition of Riviera’s greens.

McIlroy echoed Morikawa’s thoughts, arguing that navigating the Riviera’s greens on Thursday was unusually difficult because they were somehow “soft” and “fast” at the same time.

“Yeah, it’s like they’re soft, but they’re fast, I think that’s the hardest part. It’s like last week at Pebble where they were soft, but they were slow because they were worried about the wind,” McIlroy explained. “Here, they’re so fast.”

He continued, “It seems like the ball starts to get away from you a little bit, especially as it spins back. It just needs more club and spin. I hit a lot of small chippy 7-irons and 8-irons.”

He also added his own thoughts on his surprising approach at 18.

“And even that 9-iron on the last time I hit, it was 186. I hit a thoroughbred 9-iron thinking that, you know, 25 miles an hour downwind, it’s not going to come back too much and, you know, it came back 30 feet,” he said.

The steep nature of Riviera’s heralded greens added to the challenge.

“I think it’s a combination of how soft they are, but also how fast they are. And a lot of the greens here are quite severe from back to front, so it’s difficult.”

Despite the confusion, McIlroy’s scorecard did not appear to suffer from the difficult conditions. Rory made six birdies and one bogey on Thursday shoot a 66 and come within one shot of the lead.

Adam Scott was robbed of a hole-in-one when the ball landed in Riviera Green

If there was one shot that perfectly illustrated how strange Riviera’s greens played in Round 1, it wasn’t McIlroy’s approach on 18. Instead, it was Adam Scott’s bizarre execution of the tee shot on the par-3 16th.

Arriving at the 165-yard par-3 on one under, Scott hit a near-perfect iron shot off the tee. After impact, the shot tracer showed Scott’s ball flying straight to the pin, and he was on point. Scott’s ball fell 7 inches short of the cup.

But instead of bouncing and rolling into the hole, Scott’s ball settled into the sodden 16th green, right where it landed. Watch the recording below.