Riviera Country Club receives more praise from fans and players than perhaps any other golf course used by the PGA Tour. However, that doesn’t mean everyone thinks the storied LA venue is perfect.
One hole in particular, the fourth, has had golfers grumbling at the Genesis Invitational the past couple of years. The long par 3 – once called “the greatest par 3 in America” by Ben Hogan – has become extremely difficult to hit. But never more so than over this past weekend.
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During the final round, only six of 51 players hit the green in regulation – or less than 12 percent! And those players still shot a combined one-over on the 231-yard hole. But for the entire week, it wasn’t much better.
Stats guru Justin Ray noted that the 15.4 percent that hit the green during the tournament is the lowest figure for any hole since the sixth hole at Royal Birkdale during the 2008 Open Championship (13.7 percent). And that’s after only 16 percent hit the green in 2023.
The 4th hole at Riviera finishes the week with a green in regulation percentage of 15.4%.
That is the most difficult green to hit in any PGA Tour event for a single week since the 6th at Royal Birkdale at the 2008 Open (13.7%).
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 18, 2024
So what’s there to be done, if anything? Well, one PGA Tour pro, Adam Schenk, had a suggestion for what he described as a “terrible” hole. Bold! And he made it directly to tournament host Tiger Woods. Even bolder!
Who says you have to use the same FW grass around all the greens? Normally, I would say could be to hard for maintenance & cost too much 💰…..but it’s Riv that that excuse is out 😎⛳️🥩
— Adam Schenk (@acschenk1) February 19, 2024
Two types of grass around the green? Hmm. It might look weird, but it could make the hole play a lot fairer – and as it was intended. Hogan probably wouldn’t have heaped as much praise had he not been able to run shots onto the sloped green. Instead, the kikuyu grass has made that tougher to pull off.
Then again, with golf holes there’s always going to be differing opinions. Lee Trevino once said they should “plough the hole up and start over” and more recently, Luke Donald tweeted: “No disrespect to Mr Hogan, but wouldn’t put the fourth hole at Riviera in my top 1,000 par 3s in America!!”
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In any event, we’ll have to see what changes, if any, are made before next year’s tournament. And while we’re not sure if such a change falls under the purview of the tournament host, if anyone could convince the membership to get something done, it’s probably a 15-time major champion.
