This Week on Tour: Hollywood
The Course
The next stop on the PGA Tour takes pros to the culturally vibrant and opulent city of Los Angeles to compete on an equally exciting venue, Rivera Country Club. Built in 1926, the George C. Thomas Jr. design will play to 7,322 yards for the week and has hosted the Northern Trust Open (formerly Nissan & Los Angeles Open) since 1973. Rivera has also played host to three major championships: the 1948 U.S. Open, the 1983 PGA Championship and the 1995 PGA Championship -- and is slated to host the U.S. Amateur Championship in 2017. Nicknamed Hogan’s alley due to Ben’s Hogans three Los Angeles Open Victories in the 1940′s, the course’s immaculate fairways and towering trees are bordered by city on all sides, yet still retains a spacious and uncrowded atmosphere. Always a stiff test, Rivera ranked as the most difficult par 71 last year on tour, primarily due to the difficulty pros had hitting greens.
The Field
Headlined by world no. 1 and no. 2 Jordan Speith and Rory McIlroy, this year’s Northern Trust Open has a field that contains 15 of the top 30 in the official world golf rankings that look to cash in a victory on the last stop of the west coast swing. Some of the notable participants include:
Fred Couples
Charl Schwartzel
Hideki Matsuama
Jimmy Walker
Bubba Watson
Dustin Johnson
Sergio Garcia
The Outcome
Even though the week will have ideal weather conditions, don’t expect the scores to reflect the favorable conditions. James Hahn, last years winner via a playoff, only was able to shoot 278 (-6) over 4 days of competition. Look for this year’s winner to rank highly both in fairways hit and for greens in regulation.