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

Riviera gained fame as the club of choice for movie stars. Among them were Douglas Fairbanks (who put up $1,000 of the $10,000 prize fund for the first Los Angeles Open), W.C. Fields, Basil Rathbone, Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster and Sammy Davis Jr. More recently the membership has included Glen Campbell, Peter Falk, James Garner and Robert Wagner . Scenes from several movies were shot at Riviera, including "Pat and Mike", "The Caddy", and "Follow the Sun."

Today, those familiar with Riviera as a PGA Tour stop also recognize it as the course with the Kikuyu grass and a bunker in the middle of a green. Kikuyu is a strong, tough strain of grass that was imported from Africa more than70 years ago for use on polo grounds. When Riviera opened, polo was popular in L.A. and there were several polo grounds in the neighborhood. Their are many stories about how Kikuyu appeared at Riviera, but the tale most often told is that one night after a local polo field was seeded, a windstorm carried the Kikuyu seed onto Riviera. Since Kikuyu grass is essentially a weed, it grew quickly. The course superintendent ignored its encroachment, and before he knew it Riviera had been taken over by Kikuyu. Instead of resisting its growth, Riviera learned how to perfect Kikuyu. Today it blankets the course, making pitch and run shots nearly impossible because the thick grass grabs the club head. Many believe Kikuyu is the finest form of grass to play off fairways because the ball sits up, regardless of the lie. Riviera’s other unique feature is the sixth hole, a 170-yard par 3 that features a bunker in the middle of the green, making the putting surface into a doughnut shape. If a player's tee shot lands on the wrong side of the bunker, he must chip over the sand or take several putts around it. For the average player, option No. 1 means taking a divot out of the green.

Riviera has held several major championships. The 1948 U.S. Open there was won by Ben Hogan, who shot 8-under-par 276, an Open scoring record that stood until Jack Nicklaus posted a 5-under-par 275 in 1967 at Baltusrol.

In 1983, the PGA Championship was held at Riviera and won by Hal Sutton. The PGA returned in 1995, with Steve Elkington beating Colin Montgomerie in a playoff. Both shot 267, which remains the record for any major championship.

Riviera hosted a Senior Tour major in 1998 when Hale Irwin rebounded from a first-round 77 and claimed the title.

Unfortunately, the odds on Riviera holding another major are slim. Moreover, the club may well lose the Northern Trust Open. The course is regarded as one of the gems on the PGA Tour, but traffic is a mess and the congested neighborhood offers limited options for parking, hospitality and merchandise tents.

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

Race to get into the Accenture World Match Play Championshp

This is the last week for players to qualify to get into the WGC-Accenture World Match Play championship as the top-64 (66 players if someone like Tiger Woods doesn't show up, Phil Mickelson has said that he won't play) will get into the match play
Biggest move was made by Ben Crane, who last week was 109th but with his win moves into 56th, so he will play. Other than that no serious movement other than for Japanese player Shingo Katayama, the lack of play is taking it's toll. He ended last year 56th and with the lack of play has dropped to 68th, since he isn't playing in the next couple of weeks he won't be in Tucson. With Phil Mickelson now not playing it means that the 65th player will get the spot, three mean on the bubble is Scott Verplank (64th), Ross McGowan (65th) and Gonzalo Federez-Catano at 66th. The players making drastic moves up, Louis Oosthuizen is 73rd after beginning the year 89th, Brandt Snedeker is 75th after starting year 97th and Farmers Insurance runner-up Marc Leishman who climbed from 100th to 81st in the ranking.

Race to the Masters

Players that are in the top-50 of the world rankings after the Arnold Palmer Invitational get to play in the Masters
With his Farmers Insurance win, Ben Crane now gets a spot along with Bob Hope winner Bill Haas and Sony Open winner Ryan Palmer. With his runner-up finish in Qatar, Alvaro Quiros can now make his plans for Augusta as he moved from 52nd to 32nd.

The Buzz:

Non-golf issues have been the big news on the PGA Tour in 2010, seriously detracting attention away from golf and onto subjects that are not very beneficial to the Tour. The first couple of weeks was the news of Tiger Woods problems as many speculated on his return instead of reporting on the SBS and the Sony Open. The next week at the Hope, the poor field and the fact that some had gotten releases to play over in Abu Dhabi and Qatar was a major negative news. This along with poor weather in the earlier rounds detracted from the news of golf as the problem of a really poor field filled the limited golf news. Things got even worst last week in San Diego when Phil Mickelson decided to play with a Ping Wedge. Despite the club having square grooves, it was grandfathered in per a agreement with Ping, the USGA and PGA Tour to settle a lawsuit from the early 90s. This problem first reared it's head in Hawaii, but when Phil put it in his bag it became big news. It blow up when Ron Kroichick reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that Scott McCarron called Mickelson a "cheater", this became big news on Saturday to the point that reports on the tournament were hard to find.

I don't pretend to know what kind of a true advantage using the Ping wedge really is, but from the outcry from some of the pros you would of thought that a rule was past that allowed players to skip a hole. It's amazing sometimes on the upheaval from fellow professionals on some issues, I remember in 1999 when I was working with ABC Sports, to get hand held signals from the course we would put a balloon up in the air. At the Memorial, several players complained that we took it down during lunch, thus it was an unfair advantage because it was used to gauge the wind and the Tour came to ABC asking that we either leave it up the whole day or not put it up.

So it's a tricky position for commissioner Finchem to solve, honestly it should be cut and dry, everyone has the same option of playing the club so why complain. Have to think that this will die down in a week or two but you have to wonder what damages are being made by players verbally attacking one another in the press.

Very strange, Tim Finchem was suppose to tell the media what he was going to do, that Tuesday press conference got postponed to Wednesday so we guess he is working on something. Still the point is that the PGA Tour has seemed to have lost control on issues in 2010. Usually they are good to make sure they don't get out of hand, but already that has happened several times. Maybe it's because the face of the media has changed and stories can now be instantly reported. What Golfobserver did five years ago is now the common way of reporting, gosh even big sites like Golf Digest and Golf.Com are taking other stories and reporting on what someone else reported. As time goes on it's getting downright hard to find true reporting from smaller tournaments anymore. So just like the Furman Bisher mistake and the Scott McCarron calling Mickelson a cheater, these items then get very big just because people are now too busy reporting what others reports.

This is a mess and something that the PGA Tour has to handle, with the change is style from the media negative news seems to get more space than positive news.

Hard to believe sometimes on how it can be so dry in Southern California most of the year but once the PGA Tour comes to town all of that changes. This week rain is again in the forecast as Thursday is suppose to be cloudy as rain moves in Friday and Saturday. Skies are suppose to clear for Sunday, but as you can see with this chart to the right, this event has had a fair amount of rain. Here is the weekly forcast according to Weather.com. So that is another negative that will have to be dealt with this week.

It will be interesting to see how much this event gets clobbered on Sunday because of the Super Bowl. The Phoenix event has been played on Super Bowl weekend for years now, since they have a big party area it works perfectly for folks to watch golf and then venture to the big tent to watch the Super Bowl. Unfortunately both events are losers because the PGA Tour had to change the dates of both events because of it being an Olympic year, this was the best solution for NBC and CBS. So for Phoenix, their charity won't get the "beverage" revenue after Sunday play because there won't be a Super Bowl, while the Northern Trust may not get folks period because they want to watch the Super Bowl instead. As for the field, it's really good as Anthony Kim is back from his Abu Dhabi and Qatar adventures. Look for him to get a lot of questions on why he didn't play in the Hope. Also playing for the first time this year is Jim Furyk, the last time we saw him he won Tiger's Chevron event almost two months ago. In a strange move Padraig Harrington has picked this event over Dubai, mostly because he loves Riviera. Adam Scott is also back this week and this week starts an important year for him. He played terrible last year but signs point to things getting better. He won in Australia two months ago and is a lot older and wiser, I think he will be the comeback player of the year in 2010.

Also in the field this week Ryo Ishikawa. The 18-year-old has created quite a stir not only in Japan but around the world. He has grown up a lot in the year and we could possibly see him contending this year. One thing Ishikawa brings with him is lots of media, last year 400 Japanese writers, reporters and TV personal covered the youngsters first two rounds. It was strange for local media when Ishikawa missed the cut and Saturday and Sunday looked like a ghost town in the media center.

Last we have to mention Phil Mickelson, with the grooves, his game will be on display again as he tries for a three-peat. The last couple of years we have expected a lot more from Phil in the early going, but we have to remember it may take a tournament or two before he really gets into the swing of things. Last week in San Diego his game wasn't very good, hopefully it will be better this week.

Here are some things to look for this week:

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

Riviera C.C. has held a U.S. Open, two PGA Championships and a Senior Open. No other stop on the PGA Tour can claim the distinction of holding those three majors. Of the 53 courses that will hold a PGA Tour event this year, Riviera and Pebble Beach are the only ones that have hosted both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship.

In the history of this tournament, 29 of the 47 winners at Riviera have also won a major championship. But the one thing to look for is the close finish. There have been 16 playoffs at the tournament, with five coming since 1998, including wins by Billy Mayfair (1998), Robert Allenby (2001), Mike Weir (2003), Adam Scott (2005) and Charles Howell III (2007). Dating back to 1989, the tournament has ended in a playoff (6) or with a one-stroke win (8) 13 times – including Phil Mickelson’s one-stroke win in 2009.

Here are some secrets to a good round at the Northern Trust Open:

• Key stat for the winner:
  Riviera is a classic layout and a different breed than most courses on the PGA Tour. Placing drives in the right spot is important. Consider some of the champions over the last 18 years: Phil Mickelson, Charles Howell III, Rory Sabbatini, Mike Weir, Len Mattiace, Kirk Triplett, Craig Stadler, Corey Pavin, Tom Kite and Ted Schultz. What do they have in common? Except for Sabbatini, since 1998 not one of the winners has been in the top-10 in driving accuracy for the week and nine of them were out of the top-25.
• Disclaimer: All of the above could go out the window because last weekend’s rain will make Riviera play longer this week.
• Experience is key. The list of champions in the last 18 years includes Phil Mickelson Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Corey Pavin, Craig Stadler, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Mike Weir, all major championship winners.
• Players who hit lots of greens always do well at Riviera. In the last ten years only two players have not been in the top-ten for the week in greens hit. Last year Mickelson was 9th in greens hit at Riviera.
• Putting has become more important the last couple of years. You have to make a lot of putts, especially in the under ten feet range to do well..
• Players who are good scramblers do well at Riviera, especially those who can play the delicate shots around the green from the Kikuyu grass.
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