Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)
Having spent the first three days being pillaged for low rounds by the field of marauding tour pros and their celebrity partners, strong winds – like those giant eagles in ‘The Hobbit’ films – arrived just in the nick of time for Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach and, almost instantly, transformed America’s most famous links into the windswept and firm-greened challenge the USGA had hoped last year’s U.S. Open would be until their plans were foiled by a particularly stubborn ‘Maritime Layer’ that had everyone reaching for the jumpers.
Yet, despite the increased difficulty level presented by the conditions, Canada’s Nick Taylor – who before Sunday had only one win on tour to his name – emerged victorious from the annual four-day jaunt on the Monterey Peninsula after not only going wire-to-wire, but also holding off, who is essentially now the ‘final boss’ of the Pro-Am, five-time winner, Phil Mickelson.
As there is no European Tour event this week, however – after the weekend’s ISPS Handa Vic Open in Australia and ahead of next week’s WGC over in Mexico – I am, once again, focusing on the PGA Tour for this week’s preview and that means turning my attention 300 miles south of the Monterey Peninsula to the outskirts of Los Angeles for, what is now Tiger’s other tournament, ‘The Genesis Invitational’ at Riviera.
Field Report
With the combined effect of Tiger as the official host and the event becoming an ‘Invitational’ as opposed to an ‘Open’, the field who’ll be rolling into Riviera would make you think the first WGC of 2020 is happening in Los Angeles this week as opposed to next week in Mexico City, because it is ridiculously strong.
Of the current top 20 in the World Rankings (of which Rory McIlroy is now back to being top of the pile) 15 of them will be teeing it up in LA, with the majority of that 15 being made up of 9 players from the top 10 – which, in brass tacks, means Rory, Brooks, Rahm, JT, DJ, Cantlay, Tiger, Schauffele and Rose will all be looking for a tee time come Thursday.
So far this season there have been 17 PGA Tour events that have produced 15 different winners (Justin Thomas & Brendon Todd have both won twice) and this week will see all but one of them in the field at Riviera – so that includes the likes of Joaquín Niemann, Cameron Champ, Cameron Smith and the master of the walk-in putt, Kevin Na, all looking to add to their year’s haul in LA.
Then, finally, sprinkle in amongst all that talent last year’s defending champion in J.B. Holmes; three-time winner at Riviera and recently resurgent, Bubba Watson; the red-hot Phil Mickelson who’s bagged a runner-up and third place finish in the last fortnight; and the man who shot the lowest final round at Pebble on Sunday, Jordan Spieth, and you pretty much get the idea that this week will be more than worth tuning in for.
The Yardage Book
(i) Riviera Country Club (Par 71 – 7,322 yards): 11 Par 4’s; 4 Par 3’s; 3 Par 5’s.
(ii) As far as ‘classic American golf courses’ go, you can’t get much more classic than Riviera Country Club which, in just six years time, will be celebrating its centenary year. Now, the term ‘classic’ gets thrown around a lot when it comes to golf courses, but what it essentially means – and this is true for Riviera as well – is that it’s going to be a little tighter off the tee, with trees waiting to snaffle up any wayward shots; more emphasis on being able to shape the ball; greens that aren’t necessarily sprawling pieces of ground that you could nearly build a small bungalow on; and a course that isn’t massively long – though, with that being said, Riviera is just a touch over 500 yards longer than Pebble Beach and has two par 5’s that are both nearly 600 yards long.
(iii) Having had a look at the layout of the course and the shaping of the holes, of the 14 requiring you to find a fairway off the tee – i.e. excluding the 4 par 3’s – there’s eight of them that call for a fade from the tee box and, for really only two of the remaining six, would you say you specifically need to hit a draw. In general, though, for those comfortable carving and manipulating the ball – both off the tee and from the fairway – Riviera should really suit their eye.
(iv) As Sunday at Pebble showed, ‘wind’ is golf’s last real defender in this era of finely tuned athletes launching drivers with ultra-thin faces into balls at 120mp/h and sending them sailing 300+ yards away – with even Sunday at last year’s Genesis event in Riviera proving just the same. Going on the current forecast, however, it’s looking as though the field – apart from possibly Sunday – will just about get away without having to contend with anything too severe in the wind department for the week. With the Pacific lurking not all that far away, though, that could change in a hot minute and create the scorecard carnage I yearn for.
| Morning | Afternoon | |
| Thursday | 6km/h (gusts of 11km/h) | 9km/h (gusts of 15km/h) |
| Friday | 7km/h (gusts of 13 km/h) | 11km/h (gusts of 15km/h) |
| Saturday | 7km/h (gusts of 13km/h) | 11km/h (gusts of 17km/h) |
| Sunday | 9km/h (gusts of 15km/h) | 15km/h (gusts of 32km/h) |
(v) Below you will find a quick run-down of the top ten finishers & ties at Riviera from the years 2019-16, along with their final scores:
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| J.B. Holmes -14 J. Thomas -13 S.W. Kim -12 M. Leishman -11 R. McIlroy -11 C. Howell III -9 A. Scott -8 M. Thompson -8 D. Johnson -7 K. Kraft -7 H. Matsuyama -7 C. Ortiz -7 J. Rahm -7 V. Taylor -7 | B. Watson -12 T. Finau -10 K. Na -10 P. Cantlay -9 S. Stallings -9 A. Hadwin -8 P. Mickelson -8 C. Smith -8 M. Laird -7 R. Moore -7 X. Schauffele -7 J. Spieth -7 J. Thomas -7 | D. Johnson -17 S. Brown -12 T. Pieters -12 W. Bryan -11 C. Hoffman -11 K. Na -11 J. Rose -11 M. Laird -10 O. Schniederjans -10 C.Tringale -10 | B. Watson -15 J. Kokrak -14 A. Scott -14 D. Johnson -13 K.J. Choi -12 M. Leishman -12 C. Reavie -11 S. Kang -10 M. Kuchar -10 R. Moore -9 |
The Oracles’ Fourball
Having not had one of my fourball finish in the top 10 for the first time in the five events that I’ve been previewing, I left home yesterday morning at first light and set out on the two hour-long trek for the Oracles’ cave in search of answers. After a somewhat “heated” exchange between myself and the Oracles – which wasn’t the easiest given my Latin isn’t quite where it needs to be yet – and testing their broth to make sure they weren’t cheaping out with the necessary hallucinogens, we decided to renew our agreement to work with one another by sharing a small meal of wild mushrooms and nettles before I, once again, stepped into the void to come up with this week’s fourball.
Jon Rahm: The World Number 3 has firmly established himself as one of the top players in the world over the last 18 months and his recent run of performances is testament to that fact. In his last four events he’s finished runner-up twice, T-9 and T-10; and of the sixteen rounds that he’s played in those four tournaments, he’s shot in the 60’s nine times and hasn’t shot over par once – in other words, he’s playing a different kind of game to everyone else at the moment. So when I see Jon turning up to Riviera this week, with a power fade being his ‘go-to shape’ and the fact he’s 10th in both ‘GIR %’ and ‘Scoring Average’, I think he has the ability to finish a few places higher this week than his T-9 in 2019.
Justin Thomas: Like Rahm, JT has been playing on a different level to everyone else so far this season. I mean, in the seven events that he’s played in this season (and this excludes the Presidents Cup) he has two wins, a T-3, a T-4, a T-5, a T-17 and just one missed cut – with that cut coming at the Sony Open … the week after he won at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Now, of course, you could look at that list of seven events and point to the fact that four of them had no cut, and that would certainly be a valid point … to an extent. In reality, though, when I look at Justin Thomas – a guy sitting 1st in the FedEx Cup Rankings, 1st in the Official Money Rankings, 4th in the World Rankings, and 2nd & 3rd in ‘Birdie Average’ & ‘Scoring Average’ respectively – rocking up to a tournament where Tiger is the host, where he finished runner-up last year after shooting an ugly 75 in the final round and that’s being held in LA after the tragic death of one of his heroes in Kobe Bryant, I see a guy who’ll be looking to go all-out to get the win and make it a hat-trick of trophies for this season before March has even arrived.
Tony Finau: Having had a week off to recover from his playoff loss to Webb Simpson at the Waste Management, I think Tony Finau will do exactly what Tony Finau does best in picking himself up, dusting himself off and getting back to business – and if you need proof of that just see his top 10 finish at the 2018 Masters after dislocating his ankle on the Wednesday of the tournament. Because the fact is, as disappointing as failing to get over the line in Phoenix must have been, Tony’s been having a great season. From a stats perspective he’s 2nd in both ‘Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green’ & ‘Strokes Gained: Total’; 7th in ‘Strokes Gained: Around the Green’; and 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green’. And from an actual results perspective he’s only missed one cut; posted three top 10’s; 1 top 20 and, of course, that runner-up finish a fortnight ago – plus, he hasn’t dislocated anything, which, I think we can all agree, is always a massive bonus.
So with both his distance off the tee and his ability to shape the ball – coupled with the fact he’s finished T-15 and T-2 in his last two visits to Riviera – Tony could well be in with a chance of putting right the wrongs of Phoenix this week.
Marc Leishman: Now, I can’t lie, when I saw Marc emerge from the mists yesterday … I was a little concerned. See, when a player wins on tour – as Marc did, impressively, just two weeks ago at the Farmers – it can often go one of two ways: they can relax and play more “freely” for the rest of the season because they know they’ve guaranteed their place on tour for another few years; or, for the exact same reason, they can subconsciously take their foot off the gas and phone in the rest of the year – seeing any other good week as a mere ‘cherry’ on top of said win.
Having looked at Marc’s record, however – combined with the fact that he’s had a full fortnight off since emerging victorious at Torrey Pines – I think he could be more inclined to fall into the former of those two categories because he has had a sneakily impressive career. Like, he has five wins on the PGA Tour (four of which have come since 2017); five international wins; he’s been on every Presidents Cup team since 2013; he has six career runner-ups; eight third place finishes; forty-seven top 10 finishes; and has made close to $29 million. I mean, clearly, he knows what he’s doing out there.
So if, in the last two weeks, Marc has managed to dial in his driver from where it was in the final round of the Farmers – where he just could not find a fairway – then I think with his ability to shape the ball, his elite short game and his comfort playing in the wind (should it get up) he could at least match the two top 10’s he’s managed at Riviera since 2016 or possibly even make Los Angeles the site of his sixth PGA Tour win.
Title Photo Credit: Taku Miyamoto/Courtesy of Riviera Golf & Tennis, Inc. via ‘Golf Digest’