To the list of famous golf trees – the Eisenhower Tree, the Lone Cypress, the Ghost Tree – we can now add two more: the Hovland Trees.
A few sycamore trees, to be precise, are now hard-planted along the right side of Riviera’s 487-yard dogleg-right par-4 15th, a hole that ranks second on the scorecard and also typically among the dirtiest in the Genesis Invitational.
The trees were not added for aesthetics. They were installed as a defense against their namesake, Viktor Hovland, who in recent Genesis starts has unconventionally attacked the 15th and launched his drive right into the adjacent 17th fairway. It’s not the route Riviera designer George Thomas had in mind, but it offers a wider landing area and an unobstructed view of the 15th green. (Several other players have taken the same alternate route, but none have done it as often as Hovland).
Of course, Riviera never got the chance to defend itself last year. Wildfires forced the Genesis to Torrey Pines. But in Hovland’s final appearance in the Riviera event, he played the 15th in even par for the week: two pars, a birdie and a bogey. How much benefit that detour provided is impossible to say without access to the alternate reality in which he played the hole conventionally.
Anyway, this year Riviera closed the loophole. In practice rounds the trees seem to have served their purpose.
But if they stymied Hovland, they didn’t silence him. On Instagram, Hovland photos posted (above) of the new look with a caption that needed no translation: SMH.
Hovland is certainly not the first Tour pro to choose a creative line in search of competitive advantage. At the Sony Open in Hawaii, Charley Hoffman took his drive on the par-5 18th on the 11th fairway. At the now-defunct Dell Technologies Championship, Justin Thomas and several others played the par-4 12th and the adjacent 13th.
Just as players are getting creative, so are courses and tournament committees, whether it’s planting trees or installing internal out-of-bounds. In 2023, Riviera tried a different kind of deterrent, installing a tournament scoreboard in Hovland’s alternate line.
Hovland simply skipped over it.
Good luck trying this week.
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