{"id":484263,"date":"2026-02-19T01:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484263\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T01:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T01:51:20","slug":"this-change-to-riviera-doesnt-sound-popular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/484263\/","title":{"rendered":"This Change to Riviera Doesn\u2019t Sound Popular"},"content":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t matter who you ask\u2014Riviera Country Club is widely considered not only one of the best golf courses on the PGA TOUR, but also one of the best in the United States. The routing, the features, the aesthetics\u2014it all combines to create the perfect stage for professional golf.<\/p>\n

But the true mastery of the George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell design lies in its ability to torment the world\u2019s best without the presence of hazards. There\u2019s no water, no out of bounds in play\u2014it\u2019s an expert-level mind game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at this golf course and you look at it on paper, it seems kind of easy,\u201d Scottie Scheffler said on Wednesday. \u201cThen you start playing it\u2026then the golf course just eats away at you over time. I feel like this golf course can be about as frustrating to play as any on TOUR, just with the little tricks that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: How to Watch the Genesis Invitational<\/a><\/p>\n

One of those tricks is the par-3 fourth, which now measures 273 yards. Back in 2024, the last time the Genesis Invitational was played in the Pacific Palisades, it measured just over 230 yards.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, it ranked as the third-hardest hole and yielded just 11 birdies compared to 60 bogeys. With an additional 40 yards to contend with, I have a hard time seeing more than a handful of twos at the fourth this week.<\/p>\n

When asked about the change, Rory McIlroy called it \u201chorrible,\u201d noting that players rarely found the green in regulation at its previous yardage.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Riviera has Added Trees to Contain Viktor Hovland<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want it to be a 275-yard par 3, you have to change the apron leading up onto the green,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cIt can’t 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 onto the green with a 3-iron, it’s going to finish up on the fifth tee box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The apron McIlroy referred to is the Redan to the right of the green. It\u2019s designed so players can use the kicker to propel their ball toward the green instead of flying it all the way there. However, Kikuyu is sticky, making it next to impossible to use the contours of the green complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with it being soft is that you can’t really use the Redan as it’s intended to be used by design,\u201d J.J. Spaun said during his pre-tournament presser. \u201cBut with how soft the greens are, you can pretty much just fly it at the green and it should plug and roll out maybe to the mid-center or back-center of the green\u2026three 3s or four 3s there is going to be a pretty good score this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Inside Tiger Woods’ Presser at the Genesis<\/a><\/p>\n

Collin Morikawa, fresh off his win at Pebble Beach<\/a>, expressed disappointment with how little thought goes into playing the course\u2019s cleanup hole, dubbing it \u201chit and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s too soft, unfortunately, to have a lot of control to say, \u2018Man, I’m going to play a tight 5-iron and run it up.\u2019 I think a lot of us play it left to chip uphill, but with a 3-wood in hand, that cart path on the left honestly comes into play because the dispersion just gets that much bigger. There’s not a lot of thought to it other than just kind of hitting the green and moving on, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aberg<\/p>\n

Defending Genesis champion Ludvig \u00c5berg, who won at Torrey Pines when the tournament was forced to move due to wildfires in the Los Angeles area, added that when the ball lands in the soft Kikuyu, it stops dead, but when it lands on firm greens, it bounces away.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Three Players To Watch at The Genesis Invitational<\/a><\/p>\n

A challenge? Yes\u2014but with the potential to be an unfair one.<\/p>\n

Now, the weather has played a factor. Riviera has seen lots of rain over the last few days which has softened the entire course. If we’re lucky enough to see the property dry out a bit over the next few days, maybe we’ll get to see the guys play the hole as it was designed.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, every player in the field has to contend with it. Whoever handles the adversity best will have a leg up on everyone else. Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t turn into a point of contention as the week unfolds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It doesn\u2019t matter who you ask\u2014Riviera Country Club is widely considered not only one of the best golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-484263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}