Riviera Reconsiders Playing Host to PGA

In a seeming effort to appease its membership, Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades is reevaluating its decision to play host to the 1995 PGA Championship. A final decision is expected today.

The Professional Golfers’ Assn. announced in August that Riviera management signed a letter of intent to hold the event, which is considered by some to be the least prestigious of the four major golf tournaments.

But since then, the club’s board of governors, which serves only as an advisory board because Riviera is a nonequity club, has questioned management’s decision to hold the tournament, citing, among other issues, the wisdom of holding two tournaments within six months. Riviera is under contract with the L.A. Junior Chamber of Commerce through 1995 to hold the L.A. Open, which is traditionally held in February.

Each tournament causes disruption of course time for the members as well as diminished quality of play while improvements are being made. For the PGA Championship, the members would lose nine days of course time and could lose, to a lesser extent, up to one month of play before the tournament. During the L.A. Open, the members lose a week of play.

These objections have prompted Riviera’s management to poll its 600 golf and 730 tennis members through a mailed questionnaire and a telephone random sample survey on whether they want the championship, at the same time offering them a generous compensation plan if the PGA is held. The tennis club members would be affected because the PGA would use the courts for its corporate hospitality tents.

“In order for us to successfully host the tournament we need the understanding and support from the general membership,” said Joe Masaki, vice president and chief financial officer of Marukin Corporation, the Japanese parent company that owns Riviera. “Legally, we can get out of holding the tournament, but the management would like to honor our commitment and hold it.”

But the desires of the members are not the only consideration. The cost of improvements required by the PGA and a compensation plan for the members are others. The plan would include membership dues waived for one month, special arrangements for tickets, parking and a members’ lounge during the championship and reciprocal play at other clubs.

Bill Masse, general manager of Riviera, said he will make his recommendation to club owner Noboru Watanabe on whether to hold the championship on the results of the telephone survey--which he believes will give a more accurate account than the questionnaires. Both asked the same questions. Masse said he will also read the questionnaires but as of Monday, he had not seen any and did not know if any had been returned to Riviera.

Apparently without merit is the belief by the board of governors that holding the PGA might jeopardize Riviera’s chance to play host to the 1998 U.S. Open, which would mark the 50th anniversary of Ben Hogan’s U.S. Open win at Riviera in 1948--the only time Riviera has played host to that event. The U.S. Golf Assn. sanctions and awards the U.S. Open sites usually about five years before the tournament.

“There needs to be a reasonable space between majors because you wouldn’t want the marketing of the two (majors) to conflict,” said Mike Butz, assistant to the executive director of the USGA. “But there is no reason that a three-year space of time wouldn’t work.”

What would be surprising, though, would be if Riviera holds both tournaments in 1995, then comes back with the L.A. Open in 1996. That would place three tournaments at Riviera within a year’s time. But Masse says not to count it out, citing Watanabe’s strong sentiment toward the tournament and the Junior Chamber of Commerce.

The L.A. Open has been held at Riviera 17 of the past 18 years and 29 times since it began in 1926. A spokesman for the Junior Chamber of Commerce says it will wait and see what happens.