Greener Days Return to Riviera

Five years after the greens at Riviera Country Club were derided as substandard at the 1995 PGA Championship, the sod story at the Pacific Palisades layout seems headed for a happy ending.

The venerable course, which will celebrate its 75th birthday next year, continues to benefit from a make-over that was begun 26 months ago by renowned turf master Paul Latshaw and has continued since July 1998 under Latshaw’s protege, Paul Ramina.

The latest developments, part of a plan designed by golf course architect Tom Fazio, include new tees on holes No. 9 and 12, adding about 30 yards to each.

The course drew raves this week from players preparing for the Nissan Open, which starts today and runs through Sunday.

“It’s in wonderful shape,” Kirk Triplett said Tuesday after playing the front nine. “The greens are a little spongy and a little slow, which is to be expected because of the rain, but the fairways are beautiful. . . .

“It’s coming around.”

Jim Furyk, stepping off the 18th green after a practice round, said of the course: “It’s in as good a shape as I’ve seen it in the seven years I’ve played here.”

For Ramina, Riviera’s golf course superintendent, such compliments are, happily for him, becoming par for the course.

“I’ve heard from members who say this is the best the course has looked in 25 to 30 years,” he said. “The greens are doing really well. They’re very healthy. But I’m still in a pretty aggressive program and really working on them.”

Ramina, though, could do nothing to keep the course from being pelted by rain this week.

“It’s mushy,” Tom Lehman said Wednesday after playing nine holes in the pro-am, his round cut short because of the wet conditions. “The greens are still in good shape and so are the fairways, but it’s going to be sloppy the rest of the week even if we don’t get any more rain.”

Said Scott Hoch, whose pro-am round also was cut to nine holes: “There’s no roll on the ball at all. It’s really playing long, so the long hitters will have an advantage.”

Ramina and his crew of 30 will have their hands full keeping the course playable this week, but no less than Riviera’s reputation was on the line when Latshaw was hired to restore the luster of the storied Los Angeles club in time for the 1998 U.S. Senior Open.

In hopes of keeping Riviera in contention for a U.S. Open, club officials looked to a man who had prepared courses for seven majors, including the Masters four times.

When the seniors--not to mention David Fay, executive director of the U.S. Golf Assn.--gave thumbs up to the improvements, Latshaw turned the course over to Ramina and returned to the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. He is now at Winged Foot in Mamaronek, N.Y.

Despite the changes, Riviera lost out to Pinehurst No. 2 recently when the USGA awarded the 2005 Open to the North Carolina layout.

Latshaw still makes infrequent trips to Riviera in his role as a consultant, but Ramina, 31, is in charge of the day-to-day operation.

It was Ramina who made the call to cancel a celebrity tournament Sunday and a sponsor’s tournament Monday, believing that the rain-soaked course would be better off without the added foot traffic.

“There are some soft spots because of the rain,” he said.

The course is longer too.

“They’ve toughened it up,” Triplett said. “[No.] 9 was really tough before, and now I can’t describe it, it’s so hard. You can’t use those words in the newspaper.

“I haven’t played 12, but I saw the tee from behind No. 1. That’s all I need to know to see how long that hole’s going to play.”

Ramina said that plans call for holes No. 5 and 13 to be lengthened before next year’s Nissan Open. A split fairway on No. 8, part of the original layout, will be restored at some point, he said.

“We haven’t compromised the golf course one bit,” Ramina said in response to those who have criticized the changes. “The architecture is intact. . . .

“We’re bringing the course up to date for today’s golfers. We’re enhancing it. We’re not changing it. Obviously, it’s going to change in length, but the character of the course is not changing.”

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Staff Writer Mike James contributed to this story.