Photo: © Stephen Dunn/Allsport The ninth hole at Riviera Country Club in more recent times.

Today Riviera is famous for two unique things. Its grass is Kikuyu, a strong, tough strain of grass that was imported from Africa over 70 years ago and used on polo grounds. The grass is so strong that it can withstand the strain of horses running back and forth. About the time Riviera first opened, Polo was big and there were many Polo grounds around the course. Their are many convincing stories on how Kikuyu appeared at Riviera, but myth is that one night after a local polo field was seeded, a huge windstorm carried the Kikuyu seed onto Riviera and took hold. Since the grass was a weed it grew very quickly, but the superindent ignored its encroachment. Before he knew it, the course was taken over by the grass and it was too late to change. Today Kikuyu has blanketed the course, making pitch and run shots impossible because the thick grass grabs a shot. Many believe that Kikuyu is the finest form of grass to play from, every lie in the fairway has the ball sitting up. Over the years Riviera has been smart. Instead of resisting the growth of the grass the have learned how to perfect Kikuyu, thus Riviera is very unique in that respect The other unique nature about Riviera is the sixth hole, a 170 yard par 3 which features a bunker in the middle of the green, making the putting surface doughnut shape. If a player's ball lands on the wrong side of the bunker, he is then forced to chip over the bunker, and, for the average player, that means taking a divot out of the green.

Not only is Riviera the permitted site of the Nissan Open, it has held several major championships. In 1948 the U.S. Open was won by Ben Hogan, who shot the tournament record of 276, a score in the Open which stood until 1967.

In 1983 the PGA Championship was held at Riviera and was won by Hal Sutton. How can we ever forget when the PGA returned in 1995, with Steve Elkington beating Colin Montgomerie in a playoff. Both shot 267 which not only is the record in the PGA, but is the record for any major championship.

A semi-major, well it's just a senior major was played in 1998 when Hale Irwin was able to overcome a first round 77 to capture the title.

One of the big disappointments is the fact that the odds on Riviera ever holding another major is pretty slim. Matter of fact if the tournment isn't very careful they could lose the Nissan Open. It's not a problem with the course, it's considered one of the gems that the PGA Tour goes to. The problem is the neighborhood which makes on-site parking impossible and there isn't any room for hospitality areas which is becoming he lifeblood of the USGA and the PGA of America. Another major concern is the traffic around the course, Sunset Blvd is a major artery for the any and it not only gets bogged down with traffic but all of the side streets get impossible to maneuver. Unfortunely as time goes on the traffic and the area becomes even more congested making it harder to stage an event at this storied course.

Major Championships held at Riviera:
1948 U.S. Open won by Ben Hogan
1983 PGA Championship won by Hal Sutton
1995 PGA Championship won by Steve Elkington
1998 U.S. Senior Open won by Hale Irwin

The Buzz:

A great field is assembled for the Nissan Open. Thanks in part to a great course and being a week before the Accenture Match Play Championship 36 of the top 50 in the world rankings have assembled.

A lot of talk this week will be over the weather in the L.A. area. It's been pretty dry winter so far but it only seems that rain seems to show up the week of the Nissan Open. This week should possibly see a little rain coming over the weekend, according to Weather.Com but other than than the weekend it should be sunny.

Some of the other buzz is being created by Phil Mickelson, who has never played well at Riviera in his seven previous visits but had a change of heart last week. The last time he played at Riviera was in 2001 when he missed the cut and the thought was that Riviera wasn't Phil's type of course, that was the reasoning for Mickelson not coming back. But with his new found driving he feels that he will have a good week so he is playing. With next week's Match Play it will mean that Phil will play six straight weeks.

One thing that Mickelson and the rest of the field will see is that every bunker has been renovated with new sand in them. This work was done in order to try and return the course to it's original design.

Lastly Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, David Howell and Sergio Garcia will be making there 2007 PGA Tour debut. Els has some good memories of Riviera winning the Nissan in 1999. Unfortunely one player that isn't in the field is Fred Couples, who has been having back problems and was forced to scratch on Tuesday. For Couples he had played in 25 straight Nissan Open's dating back to 1982, which was the 2nd longest active streak of active players on the PGA Tour (John Cook holds the record playing in 28 straight Bob Hope's).

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Gary Newkirk /Allsport Scene at the 18 hole at Riviera Country Club.

This week the tour is at Riviera C.C., a course that has held a U.S. Open, two PGA Championships and a Senior Open on it. No other stop on the PGA tour can claim this distinction of holding these three majors. Matter of fact of the 55 tour sites on the PGA tour this year Riviera, Winged Foot, Medinah and Pebble are the only courses that can claim holding both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.

In the history of the Nissan Open 28 of the 44 winners at Riviera have also won a major championship.

This all means that to win at Riviera it takes a player that wins not only a lot of times on the PGA Tour, but a winner of a major championship.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Nissan Open:

• Key stat for the winner:
  Riviera is an old style course that is a different breed than most of the courses on the PGA Tour. Placing drives in the right place is premium. Just look at some of the champions over the last 15 years. Rory Sabbatini, Mike Weir, Len Mattiace, Kirk Triplett, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Tom Kite and Ted Schultz. What do they all have in common? Except for Sabbatini last year, since 1998 not one of the winners have been in the top-ten in driving distance for the week and five of them were out of the top-25. Still Sabbatini belongs in this category since he ranked 111th on the PGA Tour in distance in 2006. So the deal is that the winners don't hit it far, they are better know for maneuvering the ball in the right place, then getting on the green and making birdies.
• Unimportant stat: All of the above could go out the window this week as the course will be playing drastically different. That is because of the lack of rain and a cold snap last month that saw snow fall down the road in Malibu. What all of this means is that the course won't have heavy rough and if it gets warm scoring could be very low, something that is unusual for Riviera.
• Experience is key, the list of champions in the last 15 years include Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Craig Stadler, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Mike Weir all winners of major championships.
• Player that hits lots of greens always do well on this course.
• Player that is a good scrambler, especially one that can play the delicate shots around the green with the sponge Kikuyugras.
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