A long list of golfing greats have triumphed at Riviera Country Club.
Hogan. Cut. Watson. Nelson. Mickelson. Couples. Faldo. Els. Scott. The list goes on.
George C. Thomas’ design is one of golf’s greatest cathedrals. It has hosted US Opens and PGA Championships. Since 1973, it has hosted the PGA Tour’s LA Open, now the Genesis Invitational. It’s a place where great players win. It is a trail where legends want to etch their names in history.
And it is also a place where the best players of their generations – Jack, Tiger and Rory – have failed to cross the line. You can blame it on the bumpy Poa annua greens or some inexplicable Riviera voodoo. But three golf legends haven’t found ultimate success in a place that, in theory, should play to their strengths. The course has a well-documented correlation with Augusta National and asks players to control their spin and trajectory while attacking small, tricky greens.
“It makes absolutely no sense,” Max Homa said in 2023 about Woods not being able to win at Riviera. “It’s a second-shot golf course and he’s the best iron player of all time. It really doesn’t make any sense.”
“He’s a really great iron player and you have to be a good iron player to play well here,” Adam Scott said of Woods at the time. “That may be an anomaly and perhaps the only one in his entire career. It’s a bit inexplicable.”
Woods has made 15 starts at Riviera, including his PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992. He has scored 10 times but only three top 10s, including a second-place finish to Ernie Els in 1999. Woods has attributed this to a matter of the stars not aligning and the unpredictability of Poa greens.
“It’s frustrating in the sense that this is a golf course that has been visually very comfortable for me,” Woods said in 2024. “Like I said, it’s a joy for the fader off the tee shots and I’ve been, like I said, a pretty good iron player, but for some reason I just didn’t put it together at this event except for one opportunity. For some reason it just didn’t happen.”
Nicklaus finished second twice at Riviera, but never won. McIlroy’s T2 Sunday was his best finish in Pacific Palisades.
While the sample size isn’t yet as large as the others, the spooky greats of the Riviera club could add another member if things don’t change.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler arrived at Riviera with a checkered history of his own. He missed the match play cut at the 2017 U.S. Amateur and missed the cut as an amateur at the Genesis Open in 2018. He entered the week with four top-20s as a pro at Riviera, but had never finished within six shots of the lead. He arrived on a streak of 18 consecutive top 10s (which is now over).
Even after a slow start at the WM Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Scheffler made a run at the trophy before falling just short. That didn’t happen at Riv, where he opened with a three-over 74 and found himself crossing the boundary.
The strange experience of seeing Scottie Scheffler in last place
By means of:
Dylan Dethier
“I don’t know, this place and I have a weird relationship,” Scheffler said after sinking a par putt on 18 on Friday to make the cut. “I feel like I can play so well here, but that’s not the case yet.”
Scheffler made a courageous rise in the standings this weekend – he said he benefited from early tee times and fewer chewed-up greens – but finished tied for twelfth in a place that has confounded the game’s greats.
Like Woods and McIlroy, Scheffler had no explanation as to why Riviera – a ball striker – wasn’t a fit for him. He faced difficult conditions on Thursday and took advantage of earlier start times over the weekend to move up the standings. In his career at Riviera, Scheffler has had good weeks, both on the tee and on the greens. His putting was average, but he finished in the top 10 in approach only once, and that was in 2022, when he finished tied for 7th. This past week, he ranked 36th in Strokes Gained: Approach, losing 0.739 shots per round.
“When you look at this golf course and look at it on paper, it seems kind of simple,” Scheffler said before the tournament. “Then you start playing it, and you say, hit a ball in the rough on 2 and you think, man, this hole is kind of tough. Then you don’t hit the fairway on 3 and you think, oh, shoot, I don’t know how I’m going to hit the ball on the green here, and then over time the golf course just eats away at you.”
As Scheffler’s reign over professional golf grew, he continually found his name in the same sentence as Woods. The story repeated itself at Riviera as Scheffler, like Woods, looked for ways to fix the famed Southern California track. Even on a day when he posted a low number, the replies alluded to him.
“Maybe a little bit,” Scheffler said after his third round of 66 when asked if he was feeling better about the course. “But sometimes it still felt weird.”
On Sunday evening, Woods, the tournament host, greeted winner Jacob Bridgeman on the mound. The 15-time Major winner joked that Bridgeman, who beat McIlroy by one, now had something that Woods doesn’t.
The answer to a puzzle that Woods, McIlroy and now Scheffler are still trying to solve.
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