The spelling is odd: Kikuyu. You\u2019ll hear the word, pronounced kuh-KOO-yah, umpteen times on this week\u2019s Genesis Invitational broadcast. We\u2019re talking, of course, about the peculiar grass that covers Riviera Country Club\u2019s fairways, rough and green surrounds\u2014not to be confused with the Bantu ethnic group native to Central Kenya.<\/p>\n
The grass does, however, have roots in East Africa, which explains the name. Officially Pennisetum clandestinum, Kikuyu grass\u2014which is actually an invasive species, categorized in some places as a noxious weed\u2014has found homes in the warm weather climates of Asia, Australia, South America, South Africa and Southern California. Torrey Pines, the host of the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, is covered in Kikuyu. But it\u2019s Riviera that\u2019s more closely linked with the grass than any other golf course.<\/p>\n
RELATED: 10 things to watch for at Riviera and the Genesis Invitational<\/p>\n
So, why is this a grass worth talking about? Because it\u2019s different than the Bermuda, bentgrass, zoysia and Kentucky bluegrass that you\u2019ll see at most PGA Tour venues. Kikuyu is a spongy turf, and it has an uncanny ability to stop balls dead in their tracks. On other grasses, a fairway-wood approach that lands just short of the green could well bound through the putting surface, into a bunker or rough. With Kikuyu, it could well bounce one yard forward before stopping completely. Bump-and-runs around the greens are virtually impossible; chips have to land on the putting surfaces, which feature a different (and yet equally polarizing) grass in Poa annua. We\u2019ll save the Poa conversation for another time.<\/p>\n
The fact that Kikuyu plays this way around the greens has become a particular point of conversation this week because of a change made Riviera\u2019s famed par-3 fourth hole. Former a beefy 236 yards, the Redan hole green was already tricky because the natural way to play it would be to draw a tee shot shy of the green and let it funnel to the hole. The Kikuyu added a bit of luck then to whether your shot would release of not. But ahead of this year\u2019s event, the hole has been stretched to 273 yards, making it that much more of a factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think it\u2019s a horrible change,\u201d noted Rory McIlroy in his Wednesday pre-tournament press conference. \u201cLike if you want it to be a 275-yard par 3, you have to change the apron leading up onto the green. It can\u2019t be Kikuyu. It has to be another type of grass that can help you run it onto the green because again, in the right conditions, you try to fly that ball on the green with a 3-iron, it\u2019s going to land \u2026 it\u2019s going to finish up on the fifth tee box. That\u2019s sort of what I mean by why it\u2019s not a great change.\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED: The evolution of Riviera\u2014how this timeless classic has changed through the years<\/p>\n
As far as the rough goes, Kikuyu giveth, and Kikuyu taketh away. It\u2019s a dense grass, so often times a ball will sit up on top of the rough, almost on a tee, which leads to some serious flyer lies. But it can also nestle down to the bottom, forcing guys to grip the club extra tight to prevent the grabby Kikuyu from closing the clubface. The best you can do from one of these lies is to hack it out and hope it chases on the green\u2014even though, as previously discussed, that\u2019s probably not going to happen.<\/p>\n
The strategy, as always, is to keep the ball in the fairway, where Kikuyu is its friendliest.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Genesis Invitational\u2014The sleeper we love at Riviera<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice\u2014you hit it in the fairway, you always have a good lie,\u201d Dustin Johnson, a former winner at Riviera, told Golf Digest in 2022. \u201cThe ball sits up really nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n
So nicely, in fact, that you have to worry about catching it too cleanly. Several players note that you get a lot more spin with your wedges, which impacts where you\u2019re aiming on the greens.<\/p>\n
So, does it benefit one type of player or another? Some tour pros say if you\u2019re a \u201cpicker\u201d of the golf ball\u2014a la two-time Riviera winner Adam Scott\u2014you\u2019ll have an easier time adjusting. The steeper your swing, the more of a chance the Kikuyu twists or manipulates the club through impact.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note\u2014An original version of this article ran in 2021.<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The spelling is odd: Kikuyu. You\u2019ll hear the word, pronounced kuh-KOO-yah, umpteen times on this week\u2019s Genesis Invitational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,38935,755,138747,85],"class_list":["post-490286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-courses","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}