{"id":436438,"date":"2026-02-20T17:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436438\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:05:17","slug":"on-paper-it-seems-kinda-easy-scottie-scheffler-opens-up-on-riviera-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436438\/","title":{"rendered":"“On paper, it seems kinda easy” – Scottie Scheffler opens up on Riviera struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottie Scheffler says Riviera is a golf course that “eats away at you” as he opened up on his record at the iconic venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The four-time major champion arrives in Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational<\/a> as the overwhelming favourite to clinch his 21st PGA Tour<\/a> title this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the American has not always had his best stuff over the years at the crown jewel of the west coast swing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scheffler missed two cuts here as an amateur and, in the professional ranks, has posted four top-20 finishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clearly, it’s far from a poor record, but it’s striking that a player as dominant as Scheffler has been since his breakout 2022 season has never finished within six shots of the winner.<\/p>\n

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Tournament host Tiger Woods<\/a> has also never won at Riviera. Neither has Rory McIlroy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Scottie <\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler<\/p>\n

“I think it’s an interesting golf course because there’s not really many hazards,” Scheffler told reporters in his pre-tournament news conference on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s not really too much out of bounds that comes into play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you think of some of the other great golf courses like TPC Sawgrass, you’ve got a lot of water that comes into play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“And when you look at this golf course and you look at it on paper, it seems kind of easy.<\/p>\n

“Then you start playing it, and you’re like, hit a ball in the rough on two and you’re like, ‘Man this hole is kind of hard.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Then you don’t hit the fairway on three and you’re like, ‘oh, shoot, I don’t know how I am going to hit the ball on the green here,’ and then the golf course just eats away at you over time.”<\/p>\n

Two notable changes have been made to Riviera since the tournament was last played here in 2024.<\/p>\n

The fourth hole, already a long par-three, has been lengthened. The aforementioned McIlroy described<\/a> that change as “horrible”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The grounds crew have also installed trees near the tee box on the 15th hole to prevent<\/a> Viktor Hovland taking an aggressive line up the adjacent 17th fairway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scheffler said Riviera is “still a great golf course”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it challenges us in some different ways,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Then I think you have a lot of history here, and it’s a golf course that’s stood the test of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“The golf course has changed and evolved than when it was first built and I think it’s evolved for the better and it still challenges us to this day, which is pretty cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Like I said, greens got a lot of slope. The rough is a whole new challenge for us this week. Yeah, it should be fun.”<\/p>\n

Scheffler is playing the first two rounds of the Genesis Invitational alongside compatriot Xander Schauffele and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GolfMagic will be posting regular updates over the rest of the week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottie Scheffler says Riviera is a golf course that “eats away at you” as he opened up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,8693,3026,101,8937,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-436438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-sports","tag-tiger-woods","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}