A COURSE IN HISTORY

The late Jim Murray distinguished Riviera Country Club with his ingenious columns, and Ben Hogan won just about everything he entered here. George Thomas supposedly designed a masterpiece like few others, and Hollywood’s most glamorous golfers have graced its spongy kikuyu fairways.

But does Riviera really live up to all the hype?

Well, judge for yourself. Instead of joining the other 20,000 cigar-smoking chatterboxes trying to catch a glimpse of Tiger Woods, how about taking a self-guided tour of the 130 acres that make up Hogan’s Alley?

STOP A: This informal jaunt begins after you’ve stepped off the shuttle bus and passed through the Longworth gate and sea of white tents. For the initial stop, cross the first fairway and take a sharp left turn toward the second tee.

If you enjoy getting close to the players and watching creative wedge shots, you will love the first green. It’s a chance to enjoy one of the great examples of golf course design subtlety. Note how the boomeranged putting surface slopes steeply from north to south.

“Eagle or birdie is real possible as long as you don’t miss the green long or left,” said Sam Snead, who won the L.A. Open in 1945 and 1950. “It’s the kind of hole where you can make three or seven in a heartbeat, and to me that is what makes it such a perfect starting hole.”

STOP B: After soaking up some eagles and birdies on No. 1, make a 180-degree turn and head for those freshly sodded estate lots, er, 12th-hole teeing grounds that architect Tom Fazio recommended installing to aid the club’s now dormant U.S Open bid. The 460-yard tee (there is an even sillier 480-yarder replete with a stadium viewing mound) should make for interesting viewing.

Continue down the 12th fairway and note comedian Mel Brooks’ huge white mansion on the left. Julie Andrews and author Michael Crichton also own homes along the canyon top. When you reach the deep ditch better known in Southern California as a barranca, pause and consider this:

During the third round of the 1950 Los Angeles Open, the region had seen so much rain that runoff from the nearby hills nearly spilled over the barranca top. Hogan, making his first appearance after a horrible car accident 11 months before, refused to cross, quipping, “My legs won’t stand a broad jump like that. Get the tournament committee on the walkie-talkie.”

Within minutes, the third round was canceled, Jerry Barber’s leader-in-the-clubhouse status was negated, and Hogan eventually lost in a playoff to Snead. In 1971 the club closed off the holes north of the barranca for nearly a year to install a $1.7-million concrete “sleeve,” preventing such a dangerous situation from repeating itself.

STOP C: The slender 12th green is another gem if you like your golf design simple but clever. The large sycamore next to the green was one of the few that course architects Thomas and Billy Bell could incorporate in their 1926 design. This stately tree became a favorite hangout for a trench coat-clad Humphrey Bogart to watch the likes of Hogan and Snead play through, holding, as Jim Murray once wrote, “a Thermos filled with God knows what.” Today, gallery ropes will prevent you from sitting where Bogey sat, but you get the idea.

STOP D: A minor detour is required when you reach the eucalyptus-lined 13th hole’s midpoint. Take a right turn behind the 11th tee and view one of the great wonders in golf, Riviera’s 315-yard 10th hole. The genius of this short par four lies in one word: temptation.

Jack Nicklaus says it has more options than any other hole in the world, and Ben Crenshaw calls it one of the “greatest greens ever.”

But leave it to Murray to sum it up best: “This is a shameless little harlot that just sits there at the end of the bar in her mesh stockings and miniskirt and winks at you. It’s only a little over 300 yards long and looks as drivable as the 405 Freeway. Don’t go for it. Take your four-iron and hit it safely and sensibly left. The peninsula green will open up from there. If you try to drive it, you will find the green as narrow as a burlesque runway.”

During the 1995 PGA Championship, final-round leader Ernie Els decided to try to drive the 10th green though a layup tee shot and pitch would have given him a solid opportunity for birdie and a chance to cushion his lead. Instead, Els was tempted by the day’s forward tee placement and pulled out his driver. He hit his ball too far right and ultimately struggled to make par. Els finished third behind winner Steve Elkington and Colin Montgomerie. In the final round of his 1999 Nissan Open victory, Els did not try to drive the 10th.

STOP E: Keep heading west toward the lower end of the course.

Walk past the 13th green, then behind the huge 14th green. Fourteen is the well-bunkered complex created by Thomas and Bell to serve as a mammoth-looking target after so many tiny, slender greens. Many key tournament moments seem to take place on the par-three 14th, so it’s a good place to sit on Sunday and a short walk to No. 18.

STOP F: Keep trekking down the 443-yard 15th toward the large “gull-wing” shaped green and the sycamore grove framing its charming approach. When you reach the bank supporting the green’s left side, you are standing in the area where Jack Nicklaus flubbed two chips en route to a double-bogey six, costing him the 1978 L.A. Open.

Move a few steps below to the gnarled sycamore sheltering the 16th tee, and take in this 166-yard gem of a par three. Certainly the most dramatic-looking hole on the course, 16 is the simplest of Riviera’s many strategic holes.

Deep flowing bunkers surround the 2,500-square-foot green, and inevitably, the hole will be cut on the right side at least once during the Nissan Open. The wise players aim to the center of the green regardless of the pin location.

STOP G: Instead of walking down to the 16th green, head left to the seventh tee. You can take a look at this tricky left-to-right tee shot and also see Riviera’s infamous doughnut-shaped sixth green. If the hole is cut on the back-left side of the doughnut and you hang out long enough, inevitably you’ll get to see someone try to flop a sand wedge shot over the pestering little pot bunker in the middle of the green.

Such a green had never been tried before in golf course design, and when Thomas sketched the idea for Los Angeles Country Club’s short par-three 15th, he was talked out of building it. In preparation for the 1948 U.S. Open, the USGA’s Joe Dey recommended sodding over Riviera’s infamous bunker, reasoning that it was an unnecessary design feature. But Riviera’s Scottish pro, Willie Hunter, thankfully disregarded the suggestion and the bunker remains.

STOP H: Time to move to the fifth hole to examine Thomas and Bell’s man-made, quirky mound built 40 yards short of the green. This rustic looking hillock gives the fifth its distinctive look and interferes with the player’s line of sight from the right rough. In times of heavy rain it also protects the fifth green by diverting water gushing down from the streets above.

STOP I: Head up the canyon toward the fourth green, catch your breath and take in this large putting surface. The fourth green complex was created with more than 16 feet of fill to prop the green up, making it visible from the tee.

From the fourth tee you’ll get a better view of what Hogan called the “greatest par three in America.” He was known to hit as many as 20 balls to this green during practice rounds, carving drivers and three-woods off the right-hand slope.

It was also the filming location for his 1987 club company commercial, Hogan’s final visit to Riviera.

Now turn and head just a few feet north, where before you sits “Cardiac Hill,” among the most historic finishing holes in golf, Riviera’s 18th.

Murray described this one best too: “It has picked more pockets than a London dip, sent more guys home in a barrel than a riverboat gambler with his own deck, and if there’s anything it hates it’s a golfer coming up to it needing par to win. It’s 454 yards of heartbreak.”

A knob on the crest of the hill gives the average golfer something to aim at. A neighbor’s brown gazebo gives the tour pros their guiding point. And sure, some of 18’s lore stems from the fact that every champion has played up this beast.

Bobby Jones did during a leisurely round in 1930. He struggled to a 73 that day, prompting Jones to ask sarcastically, “Where do the members play?”

Eleven-time major winner Walter Hagen, battling darkness on the final round in 1930, requisitioned a young boy to light newspapers to help him see so he would not have to return the next day.

In 1946 Byron Nelson polished off his lone Riviera win here before retiring in August. Hogan cruised up Cardiac Hill during 1947-48 L.A. Open wins, and again in June 1948 when he won the U.S. Open here. Jimmy Demaret made a run that same U.S. Open before telling the assembled media that they refer to the place from then on as “Hogan’s Alley.”

In 1974, 61-year-old Snead came to 18 fresh off a birdie to pull within one shot of leader Dave Stockton. While they waited for the fairway to clear, Snead shared some tidbits about his glorious history on the hole to Stockton, specifically mentioning how he birdied it in 1950 to catch Hogan and force a playoff. Unnerved, the USC graduate and Redlands native hit a weak hook into the left rough, then a legendary 244-yard three-wood that set up an unlikely birdie, putting Snead in his place. On your way up the hole’s left side, check out the plaque commemorating Stockton’s feat from the very spot he pulled off the greatest shot in L.A. Open history.

The ‘70s saw Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lanny Wadkins and Hale Irwin clinch victory here, with Trevino, Player and Palmer coming close.

The ‘80s witnessed Nicklaus’ valiant final-day run at Hal Sutton’s 1983 PGA Championship win. But 18’s right-hand eucalyptus grove also induced the Golden Bear’s first-round double-bogey six in the PGA.

The ‘80s and ‘90s furthered the lore of Riviera’s finishing hole, the champion roster including Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Corey Pavin and Steve Elkington’s sudden-death birdie to win the 1995 PGA. Since then, Craig Stadler and Nick Faldo have hoisted trophies here, as did Els after last year’s clutch fairway-wood shot into a stiff Santa Ana wind, capping off his victory over Tiger Woods.

STOP J: Check out the 18th green before making one more climb to see where it all begins. The 100-foot-high first tee, among the most daunting in golf.

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Geoff Shackelford is the author of “The Riviera Country Club--A Definitive History.” His latest book is “The Golden Age of Golf Design.”

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View Points

A day at Riviera County Club is a good walk unspoiled. For golf fans who want to see as much of the course as possible, here are some possible guidelines, from Point A near the first green, to Point J near the fabled 18th.

(S1) A Matter of Course

From the tempting first hole, to the signature sixth, to the fabled 18th, Riviera captures the attention.