Only days after Los Angeles Country Club completed hosting its first US Open, the area has secured another national championship at maybe the most unlikely of courses in the modern age of majors with big crowds and massive hospitality footprints.

On Wednesday, the USGA announced that Riviera Country Club, which last hosted the US Open in 1948 and annually stages the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational, has agreed to hold the 2031 US Open.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that the news was communicated in an email to members on Tuesday night by Riviera President Megan Watanabe, the daughter of the club’s long-time owner, Noboru Watanabe.

“It has been one of my biggest goals to bring back major championships to Riviera since I started working for Riviera, and it truly represents the culmination of a dream that my family has had since acquiring the club in 1989,” wrote Watanabe, the club’s first female president.

“Riviera Country Club is a truly spectacular course that holds a special place in the game’s history,” John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer, said in a USGA statement on Wednesday. “We are thrilled to bring the US Open back to the site of such historic moments for golf and the USGA, and look forward to writing a new chapter in 2031.”

Riviera already agreed in 2022 to host the 2026 US Women’s Open. But it figured that might be the attendance and corporate limit for a layout that sits in a canyon with little space between holes. The general consensus has been that the property was too small to host a 21st century major, particularly considering it does not have a second golf course to be used for staging, like at LACC and Torrey Pines. Parking and traffic would also seem to be of significant concern, with only a couple of two-lane, frequently congested roads leading to the Riviera in the community of Pacific Palisades.

However, the USGA has opted over the last decade to choose more historical courses, even if they don’t present the same attendance opportunities. Those sites include Merion, The Country Club and this year, Los Angeles Country Club, where only 22,000 tickets were distributed per day. Size can be deceiving at times, because the USGA built fewer, but taller skyboxes that provided the largest corporate footprint in US Open history, with significant proceeds going from LACC’s sale of hospitality to the USGA coffers.

Television is also a consideration. The USGA has seen growing opportunities to please broadcast partners by having primetime coverage in the East at Pebble Beach, The Olympic Club, Torrey Pines and Chambers Bay.

NBC Sports said on Tuesday that viewership of last week’s US Open, won by Wyndham Clark, was up 27 per cent compared to the 2022 championship at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, where Matt Fitzpatrick won. The network said it averaged 6.2 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. That was nine per cent better than 2021, when Torrey Pines in San Diego hosted the US Open captured by Jon Rahm.

Riviera certainly fits the bill of the courses that Bodenhamer has called the “cathedrals of golf”. The George C Thomas design is a classic, where many of the game’s greats have won — with the notable exception of Tiger Woods. Riviera last hosted a major in 1995, when Steve Elkington beat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff.

Securing Riviera gives the USGA 12 consecutive years of future US Open sites, and 16 of the next 19 are set through 2042. The only open dates now are 2036, 2038 and 2040. In all, 20 sites have been determined through 2051.

The next US Open played in California will be at Pebble Beach in 2027. The legendary seaside course, which hosts the US Women’s Open for the first time in July, also is set for U.S. Opens in 2032 — the year after Riviera — 2037 and 2044.

Los Angeles Country Club is scheduled to hold the 2039 US Open.

The 10th hole is considered one of the greatest short par 4s in the world. Keyur Khamar

Riviera certainly fits the bill of the courses that Bodenhamer has called the “cathedrals of golf”. The George C. Thomas design is a classic, where many of the game’s greats have won — with the notable exception of Tiger Woods. Riviera last hosted a major in 1995, when Steve Elkington beat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff.

Securing Riviera gives the USGA 12 consecutive years of future US Open sites, and 16 of the next 19 are set through 2042. The only open dates now are 2036, 2038 and 2040. In all, 20 sites have been determined through 2051.

The next US Open played in California will be at Pebble Beach in 2027. The legendary seaside course, which hosts the US Women’s Open for the first time in July, also is set for U.S. Opens in 2032 — the year after Riviera — 2037 and 2044.

Los Angeles Country Club is scheduled to hold the 2039 US Open.

The post Confirmed: Riviera CC — once thought of as too small to host a 21st century major — has reportedly been selected to hold the 2031 US Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The young woman standing at Riviera Country Club’s rope line on Thursday shielded her eyes from the sun and peered into the distance at the three figures standing on the secluded seventh tee box. “Who else is in Rory’s group?” she asked, probably a bit louder than she should have. A few snickers and indignant harumphs followed, and then someone offered quietly, “Tiger.”

She was embarrassed, to be sure, but hardly horrified at the gaffe. Blame it on the glare, or the fact that Tiger Woods wasn’t donning a red shirt, or that he was limping, or that he’d been gone for 844 days from regular PGA Tour competition. Golf moves on, and Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are now the outlines that people recognize just as well from a distance.

We’ve got to ease our way back into the notion that Woods still has the competitive drive to show up out here.

In the first round of the Genesis Invitational that Woods hosts, at high noon, the 47-year-old was the last of his threesome to make the short walk from the putting green to the first tee. Justin Thomas arrived, followed by McIlroy, and if the cheers and chants for Woods were hearty, they were hardly much louder.

It was a lively and big crowd gathered in front of the iconic clubhouse and lined the first hole, but it wasn’t the zoo that some might have expected. And after his tee shot with a fairway wood found the right rough and Woods gingerly made his way down the steep wooden steps, the gallery thinned.

Tiger Woods reacts after making birdie on the 18th green during the first round of the Genesis Invitational. Michael Owens

There was a buzz, to be sure, as Woods made his way around the historic layout, but nothing that came close to rivalling his heyday. Even when Woods made a third straight birdie at the 18th hole to shoot a hard-fought two-under-par 69—five shots more than leaders Max Homa and Keith Mitchell—Riviera’s grassy amphitheatre was only about half full.

Now, this was a Thursday in the big city after all. If come Sunday Woods is anywhere near contention in pursuit of record tour win No. 83, Dodgers-in-the-World-Series pandemonium may ensue.

For now, being tied for 27th place (with a couple of groups still to finish Round 1) is an extremely promising return for the man who hadn’t played a competitive round since bidding a Friday farewell while missing the cut in last July’s Open Championship at St. Andrews.

Woods joined McIlroy and Thomas as the trio birdied the easy, par-5 first hole, but he made only one birdie against three bogeys over the next 14 holes. Then, when we might expect him to be tired and sore, Woods rallied by rolling in birdies of five feet at the par-3 16th, 23 feet at the par-5 17th and seven feet at the famous uphill par-4 finisher.

It was a jolly threesome that walked off the 18th, because Thomas, who shot 68, chipped in for birdie and McIlroy (67) drained a five-footer for birdie. They exchanged hugs and hand slaps like they’d won the Riviera member-guest.

Birdie
Birdie
Birdie@TigerWoods closes out his first round @TheGenesisInv in style. pic.twitter.com/aBmxuBak0w

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 17, 2023

“Ebbs and flows,” Woods concluded afterwards. “It was nice that I had this unbelievable pairing—two great guys, two great friends. The people were obviously very supportive; they were just cheering all of us on, which is great. [It] just made this whole tournament better.

“I happened to actually hit some good shots finally and made a couple of putts. … It was a nice finish.”

For those looking for encouragement from this outing, beyond the closing birdie barrage, Woods’ gait looked better than it did when he played, riding in a cart, in The Match in December and then again at the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie. But he still slightly dragged his right leg due to the ankle that was damaged in his car accident two years ago, as well as the plantar fasciitis that he’s contended with more recently.

At the par-3 fourth, where the group had to wait several minutes, Woods sat on a cooler with Thomas and untied his right shoe to give his foot some breathing room. On a couple of holes on the back nine, he pulled off the shoe completely to make an adjustment.

Tiger Woods adjusts his right shoe on the 12th hole during the first round of the Genesis Invitational. Ronald Martinez

“My ankle’s a lot smaller than it has been,” Woods explained. “So, I’ve had so many surgeries that the ankle just keeps changing, the leg keeps changing. Yes, the shoes keep changing, the socks keep changing. Everything’s a moving target. How much I’m on my feet, how much I’m not, how active I am, how not active, the muscles that are on, they’re off.”

In the scoring room afterwards, Woods said McIlroy announced that he needed to go practice with his driver. “Right behind you,” Woods joked, knowing full well that he would be heading back to his hotel room for extensive icing treatment to prep for his 7:24 a.m. round on Friday.

Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas laugh as they leave the ninth tee. Cliff Hawkins

There were some light moments that showed Woods had probably tempered his expectations, despite contending that he only enters tournaments if he believes he can win. Sitting on the cooler at No. 4, a story Tiger and Thomas, close friends now, shared brought JT to laughing tears.

The two had a similar moment walking off the ninth after Woods striped his drive straight down the middle past Thomas, and their exchange was funny enough that Woods leaned heavily on Thomas as they laughed.

Tiger producing a stirring closing stretch was fantastic. Seeing him enjoy the day with his buddies after all this time away might have been better.

“It was a great round,” Woods said of the camaraderie more than the score. “The ebb and flow of needling each other, encouraging each other and telling stories. Because I hadn’t been out here, so I’ve missed some of the things that have transpired on tour, which is kind of fun.”

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“Sick. Sick,” Dahmen said.

Woods sent out a tweet on Friday afternoon that read “I’m ready to play an ACTUAL PGA Tour event next week at the Genesis Invitational.” As tournament host, Woods would have been there anyway, but the event takes on a whole new meaning now that he’s officially teeing it up, something he hasn’t done since the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews last July.

“The whole vibe on the property changes when he’s there,” Dahmen said on Friday at the WM Phoenix Open. “It’s like Jesus is walking around.”

Dahmen would know. At the 2018 Quicken Loans National, he was then still somewhat of an unknown journeyman and got paired with the 15-time major champion in Saturday’s third round at TPC Potomac. The experience was everything he dreamed it would be and more. “No one cares what you’re doing, and it’s almost better that way,” Dahmen said at the time, describing what it was like to play with Woods. “You’re just in your own little world. You forget what’s going on. You almost forget you’re playing golf sometimes. You get kind of stuck watching, watching him, the circus around him.”

You can bet Dahmen is hoping and praying they get to do battle once more.

“I just hope I’m tied with him after two days,” he said.

Tommy Fleetwood, also in the field next week, smiled ear to ear when he heard that the Big Cat was back (again).

“It will be cool,” the Englishman said. “Golf’s better when he’s playing and he’s healthy. On a personal level for him, too, he has to be thrilled to compete.”

Max Homa is thrilled to compete against Woods, too. In 2021, when Homa won his hometown event, Woods was not in the field, though he was on hand to congratulate Homa and present him with the trophy. It remains one of the most special moments of Homa’s career.

“It’s awesome, I feel like it’s just a treat when he plays,” Homa said. “We don’t know what his future schedule will be, but hopefully he can play more. It’s really exciting he’s coming back. Obviously it’s his tournament, so it already has a lot of buzz, but for him to be able to play is cool. Everybody’s always excited to see how he’s swinging it and how he’s doing, so it’ll be fun to watch.”

Even if they need to drag Woods around the course, Homa says they will.

“I imagine we’ll be carrying him down the hill on 1 and up it on 18. Which no one would mind.”

Patrick Rodgers, a fellow Stanford Cardinal who tied Woods’ record of 11 victories in college, was understandably pumped. He’ll be on the grounds next week as well, in search of his first tour win at age 30. Rodgers has two top-15s at Riviera in his last four trips.

“Stoked,” Rodgers said. “It’s great, as good as it gets. Great for the tour.”

Next week will mark Woods’ first official non-major PGA Tour start since October 2020 at the Zozo Championship. It is a rather large deal, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the tour. From the WM Phoenix Open to Tiger at Riviera, it’s safe to say the circus is very much in town.

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By Dan Rapaport
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He does not have any majors, nor has he been particularly close, and majors remain the currency of elite professional golfers. The big four, however, comprise a small percentage of golf tournaments. And in the events outside the major bubble, there’s a not-ridiculous case to be made that Patrick Cantlay has been the world’s best golfer over the past six months.

We can explain. Cantlay returns home to Southern California for this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club playing the best, most consistent golf of his 29-year-old life. The heater began last summer, when he caught fire in the FedEx Cup Playoffs—a T-11 to begin the three-event sprint at The Northern Trust was followed by an electrifying playoff victory over Bryson DeChambeau at the BMW Championship. He held off a hard-charging Jon Rahm to “win” the staggered-scoring Tour Championship, a victory that brought him the FedEx Cup and the $15 million that comes with it and carried that form into an undefeated—and uncharacteristically spirited—performance at the Ryder Cup.

Cantlay was named PGA Tour Player of the Year via a controversial vote by his peers; many felt Rahm, who posted 15 top-10s in 22 starts, including a U.S. Open victory, deserved the nod. However, it went to Cantlay and his breakout summer, which extended into the media room.

Cantlay’s a bit old school demeanour-wise; a speak-when-spoken-to type of guy whose reticence has been mistaken for dullness. No longer; he’s become a press-conference darling for cerebral answers like the one he gave at the Tour Championship to a question about the Player Impact Program. Patrick Cantlay, as the kids say, had a moment.

He then disappeared from public eye for the entirety of the fall, four months in total. When Cantlay is not playing on tour he is … well, he’s doing whatever he does. You won’t find him posting swing videos to Instagram or tweeting about the football game. It’s part of the reason, along with his barren major record, that he often fails to pop up in the best-player-in-the-world conversation.

He returned to competition at last month’s Sentry Tournament of Champions and finished solo fourth. Next came another top–10 at The American Express, a top-five at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and a playoff loss at last week’s WM Phoenix Open, where he missed a nine-footer on the 72nd hole that would’ve won him his seventh PGA Tour event. Two holes earlier, at the raucous 16th, his uphill birdie putt struck a rock and came up well short. He summed that bad break in one word: “golf.” He is a combined 113 under par over his last six events, an average of 4.7 shots in the red per round.

Despite the costly late misses in Phoenix, Cantlay took great pride in playing mostly mistake-free golf over the entire weekend at TPC Scottsdale, flashing the relentlessly consistent brand of golf that has seen him rise all the way to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I obviously played really well all week, played solid,” said Cantlay, who can jump ahead to No. 1 in the World Ranking with a win and Rahm finishing outside the top four. “Had two rounds with no bogeys on a golf course that I had never seen before, so my game’s in a really good spot. Obviously, I would have liked to get over the finish line, but I did as best as I possibly could and that was the result and sometimes that’s how it goes.”

He arrives at Riviera as the clear-cut second favourite, ahead of Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy and trailing only Rahm in the bookmaker’s minds. Cantlay’s string of results is the primary reason for that, and his comfort on Riviera’s kikuyu fairways and rough and its Poa annua greens certainly bolster his chances. The former UCLA All-American finished T-4 in his first Genesis appearance in 2018 and has posted three finishes between T-15 and T-21 at the event since.

“I think most people’s problems with kikuyu is they never play on kikuyu,” he said. “There aren’t very many places in the world where we see this grass; even the other L.A. courses don’t really have kikuyu. So anytime you have to play on a surface that you’ve never played on before or played very rarely, it’s difficult. I fortunately grew up a Southern Californian, so I like the kikuyu grass and don’t think it’s that particularly difficult.”

He fully expects to be in contention this week. He doesn’t hope to be, he expects to be, and there is absolutely a difference. He has reached that level, where getting in contention no longer scratches an itch; he’s disappointed every time he doesn’t close the deal, as was the case in Phoenix.

“Any week that you don’t win is not an ideal week. But that’s the nature of it,” he said. “So trying to find the right perspective where you never get satisfied with finishing second or third, while at the same time recognizing that if you’re competing to win tournaments often, that will happen is one that I try to walk the line really finely. I try to do my best to understand and realise that seconds and thirds and playoff losses are going to happen while at the same time never being satisfied with all top-10 finishes this year. The goal is to win tournaments and so far, this year I’ve been shut out.”

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By Ryan Herrington
Statistically speaking, this week’s Genesis Invitational has the strongest field of any men’s pro tournament to date in 2021. Seven of the top 10 players in the world will be competing at Riviera Country Club outside Los Angeles, along with 30 of the top 50.

And so will Angus Flanagan.

The native of England who plays college golf at the University of Minnesota earned an exemption on Monday into the PGA Tour event by winning the Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase. After tying San Francisco’s Tim Widing with a 71 in regulation at Riviera, Flanagan won the playoff on the third extra hole with a birdie.

Angus Flanagan wins with a birdie on the third sudden-death playoff hole pic.twitter.com/oyaydzF6lY

— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) February 15, 2021

“It’s pretty surreal,” Flanagan said. “Being able to tee it up against the best in the world, players I’ve looked up to … seeing guys out here that growing up, looking up to, having their pictures on my wall, it is surreal. It’s probably not going to sink in until tomorrow morning when I come back out here and I have my player’s badge.”

This is the seventh year the tournament has reserved a spot for a college player and held a Monday competition to determine the recipient. Past winners of the Showcase have included Wake Forest’s Will Zalatoris (2015) and Texas’ Scottie Scheffler (2018).

Interestingly enough, this won’t be the first PGA Tour start for the Golden Gopher senior. Flanagan received a sponsor’s exemption into last summer’s 3M Open outside Minneapolis after winning the Minnesota Golf Champions tournament. While he missed the cut at the 3M, the experience helped propel him to earn medalist honors at the Western Amateur later in the summer. This all came after Flanagan earned college All-American honours in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, becoming the first player at the school to do so in six years.

Flanagan is 34th in the PGA Tour University standings, a ranking of college seniors in which the top five will earn playing privileges on the Korn Ferry Tour after the end of the 2020-21 college season. He’s 37th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and considered a contender to make the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team that will compete in May at Seminole Golf Club after making the 15-golfer practice squad in December.

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By Christopher Powers
The way he’s playing right now, Dustin Johnson could make just about any course on the planet his personal playground. Doesn’t matter if it’s in America, Saudi Arabia or on the moon.

That said, there is an undeniable love affair between DJ and this week’s Genesis Invitational host site – Riviera Country Club. Since 2014, Riviera has been to Johnson what a dome has been to Drew Brees. Dome Home, sweet dome home.

Again, Johnson is currently playing at a level where he could win anywhere, but he’ll be feeling extra comfortable this week in L.A. As stats guru Justin Ray pointed out Monday, the World No. 1 is almost second to none at Riv since 2014. Check out these eye-popping numbers:

.@DJohnsonPGA ranks at Riviera CC since 2014 (among players with 12+ rounds)

Scoring average – 1st
Score to par – 1st
Bogey avoidance – 1st
Drives of 300 or more – 1st
One putts – 1st
SG Total – 1st
SG Tee to Green – 1st

— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 15, 2021

OK, so he’s statistically second to none, and that’s in a pool of 106 players, as Ray later pointed out. However, in the win column, he is second to Bubba Watson, who has won three times at Riviera since 2014. Johnson claimed only one win during that span, though it was of the dominant, five-stroke variety. That week, a slumping, injured Watson withdrew on Saturday.

Johnson is the heavy betting favourite this week. Given his current form, that number isn’t all that surprising. But the field strength is as good as it gets this week, with the likes of Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka all teeing it up.

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By Shane Ryan
Following his win at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, Adam Scott left no doubt about the magnitude of his optimism. “I really do believe if I can maintain motivation and focus, the next five years can be my best years on tour,” he said in his victory presser.

And why not? After earning 2½ points in a Presidents Cup he cared deeply about in December, he went on to win the Australian PGA Championship, took a couple of months off and then broke an almost four-year PGA Tour victory drought by holding off Matt Kuchar, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, among others, to win at Riviera. For the first time since May 2017, Scott is back in the top 10 of the World Rankings, he’s learned to work hard and smart simultaneously, and he’s collaborating with Bradley Hughes, the hottest coach in golf today. With the Masters looming, the Aussie has every reason to believe he’s on a massive upswing, and that he can redefine his career in the next half-decade.

Scott has always been very honest about wanting a grander legacy than the one he’s earned to date. As far back as 2014, I asked him whether major victories were a fair measure of a career. Considering that Scott only had one at that time—and still does—I expected him to argue against the case. Instead, he told me emphatically that it was fair.

“History has shown that the greatest players have ended up accumulating the most of these tournaments,” he said, “and I think it’s probably a fair assessment of who the greatest players over time have been in each decade and each era.” Left unspoken was the implication of his words, which is that Scott himself lacked a certain lasting greatness due to his relative underachievement in the majors.

After his win this past weekend, the 14th of his PGA Tour career and 28th worldwide, he was more explicit, saying, “the big goal is to be a multiple major winner.” No ambiguity there. It’s the ultimate focus of his recent work, and it’s the pinnacle point he’s attempting to reach as he approaches his 40th birthday in July.

Scott celebrates on the 18th green Sunday after clinching the Genesis Invitational title. (Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)

It’s not that Scott ever got lazy, per se—according to him, it was a combination of life changes (children, specifically) and not understanding how to work, even when he was pushing himself hard. Those factors can hamper focus, and they conspired to frustrate him deeply as he sank to 82nd in the World Rankings in the bleak summer of 2018.

It wasn’t the first time he’s been down, and what we’re seeing now is not his first comeback. In fact, I would call it the fourth true surge of his career. The first happened at the outset, when he embarked on a gradual climb from being a merely a curiosity among golf cognoscenti, propelled by his 2004 Players Championship victory. He won steadily after that and stayed inside the world top 10 until 2008, when he began a fall—spurred on by a break-up with his longtime girlfriend (now his wife), a freak injury to his hand and recurring illness—that would drop him to No. 76 by the fall 2009.

The second climb took a couple years, but in 2013 Scott won the Masters and in 2014 he reached World No. 1 for the first time. The next dip was more modest, and when he emerged from that mini-slump and won twice on the PGA Tour early in 2016 (Climb No. 3), there was talk of the old Scott returning to finish what he had started. Contrary to prophesy, those would be the last Tour events he’d win until the Genesis last weekend. And as he makes his way into the major season this year, he’ll have to prove that this is more than just another false spring, that the latest resurgence is something more profound.

This chart of Scott’s World Ranking over the years shows the ebbs and flows of his career.

If there’s reason to believe this time is different, objectively, it is starting to appear in his ShotLink statistics. In 2016, despite the two tour wins, Scott ranked 129th in strokes gained/putting at -.168 (after being 157th the previous season). In 2017 and 2018, his ranking was equally humbling (128th and T-165), but last season showed progress as he jumped to 31st at .348. It was the first time he had a positive sg/putting number since 2014 and just the second time in 12 years. Thus far in the 2020 season (which has a small sample since Scott has played just five events), he ranks 15th at .691.

Scott’s strokes gained/around the green ranking shows similar improvement: 83rd in 2016, T-91 in 2017, T-64 in 2018, 10th in 2019 and eighth so far in 2020.

From the sound of it, Scott knows it may be his last chance, and he knows it won’t be easy. “Everyone tells me I’m turning 40 this year,” he told reporters on Sunday. “I don’t know if they’re insinuating that’s kind of the beginning of the end … there’s no doubt, I mean, the age of guys peaking is getting younger. There’s far less dominant players in their 40s today than there was before … I’ve got to make the most of that while I’m out here. It’s only going to get harder probably. I hope I’m the exception to the rule and kind of play like Vijay [Singh] did in his 40s.”

If Scott’s game can stand the test of Riviera and the competition he faced on Sunday—nine of the world’s top 10 were in the field—it’s plenty good enough to give him a fighting chance at the four biggest events of the season. The two questions, as always, are whether he has the focus to maintain this form, and whether he’ll have the killer instinct to seize the opportunity if one presents itself.

“You’ve got to be mean inside,” he said in 2004, before the final round of the Players Championship. “I’ll be Mr. Tough Guy tomorrow.” He was as good as his word, and he won that event with a Sunday 70 that kept him one shot clear of a red-hot Padraig Harrington.

Scott continues to look for a comparable win to his 2004 Players and 2013 Masters triumphs. (Getty Images (2))

But Scott couldn’t sustain that toughness in the long term, and it would be nine years before he lived up to the promise of that day and won a major. Seven years hence, he’s yet to nab another.

Scott may be on the verge of 40, but it’s a healthy 40, an almost youthful 40. To think of him as a fading star would be wrong; in fact, he’s a man on the rise who seemingly has learned to balance the competing elements of his life and rediscover the love that spurs him to dogged work and great victories. He’ll forever be known as a gentleman, a near-anachronism in his quiet dignity, but it’s nice to see there’s still a kind of ambition burning within.

This could be the start of something profound: In a far-off dream, he defies the odds and wins two more majors to permanently alter the way he’s remembered. The possibility doesn’t escape him. Rare among golfers, he’ll speak the desire out loud. He’s aware of the moment, almost painfully so. All that remains is the impossible task of seizing it.

The post Why the latest rise of Adam Scott might be the real thing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
Harold Varner III stood on the 10th tee Sunday afternoon at Riviera Country Club in a place he hadn’t been very often in his five years on the PGA Tour: tied for the lead late on Sunday.

Most of the attention during the final round of the Genesis Invitational had been on his two other co-leaders, Adam Scott and Matt Kuchar, along with stars in contention like Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson—with a sprinkling of tournament host Tiger Woods, who would go on to finish last. But there was Varner, quietly shooting one under par on the front nine to move into that first-place tie.

And then, with one awful swing, the dream died. Like most players on Sunday, Varner hit 3-wood on the 304-yard 10th, one of golf’s most famous and treacherous short par 4s. The goal wasn’t so much to get the ball on the green as to get it someplace where an up-and-down for birdie was possible.

Varner never had a chance. He chunked the tee shot so badly that the ball went only 128 yards, leaving him with an impossible approach to the green. He ended up making double-bogey 6. Clearly shaken, he bogeyed the par-5 11th hole to drop out of contention. When the day was over, he had shot a three-over 74, leaving him in a tie for 13th place.

“I missed the ball—just completely missed it,” he told Golf Channel after finishing. “Terrible timing, huh?”

Asked later if he had slipped on the swing, he said, “I just know I missed it. I missed the ball. I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened. I just know that I hit the dirt before the ball.” He went on to say that he had hit an identical shot once in South Korea—saying, “Funny enough, same shot, same wind conditions.”

Here’s the thing about Varner: He can find humour in almost anything. As disappointed as he was Sunday, he wasn’t likely to sulk about it. Many players—perhaps most—wouldn’t have spoken to any media after shooting 40 on the back nine on a Sunday to slide from T-1 to T-13. That’s not Varner.

Varner hits from a fairway bunker on the seventh hole during Sunday’s final round at Riviera. (Icon Sportswire)

I first met him in Houston in April 2016, his rookie year on the tour. I wanted to write a story on him for Golf Digest, at least in part because he was, at that moment, the only African-American on the PGA Tour. Woods was out injured. I was going back and forth that week between college basketball’s Final Four and the Shell Houston Open. I’d arranged to talk to Varner on Friday after he played in the morning during the second round.

This can be risky for a reporter because if a player misses the cut early on Friday, he will be in no mood to talk and will often catch the first flight out. The tour has a travel agent in the locker room to help players in those situations. On Thursday, after a day at the basketball arena, I returned to my hotel room and checked the scores: Varner had shot a four-over 76 and was well on his way to a fourth straight missed cut.

Uh-oh.

I sent him a text, asking if he missed the cut if he would still feel up to talking to me after his round. The answer came back right away: “John,” it said. “I play golf for a living. My life is great. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

That’s Varner. Two years ago, he was in the first group off the first tee at Shinnecock Hills on Day 1 of the U.S. Open. He shot a nine-over 79 and was the first player who came to meet with the media.

Someone asked him if it had been a tough day. Varner laughed. “Tough day?” he said. “I was getting paid to play golf on one of the greatest golf courses in the world. You want to talk to someone who had a tough day, go talk to the volunteers out there who had to try to find my golf balls.”

Back to Houston. Varner shot 75 that Friday to miss the cut by seven shots or, as golfers put it, “by a million.” He had a big smile when I met him coming out of the scoring tent.

“Hey, I’m not playing well,” he said. “I know it’s still in there. I haven’t forgotten how to play. I’m good at golf. It’ll come back.”

When we sat down, I asked him how aware he was that he was at the time the only African-American on tour. “Of course I’m aware of it,” he said. “When people say, ‘You know, you’re the only African-American,’ I say, ‘No s—? Really?’ ”

Varner doesn’t play the “race doesn’t matter” game. He feels he has a responsibility in what is largely a white tour to not only play well but to try to inspire others who look like him to play the game well.

“It’s too bad we’re still talking about this,” he said. “But, until there are more of us playing out here, it’s going to be an issue.”

Like everyone else, Varner has no answer to the question of why there aren’t more minorities playing on the tour. Right now, it is Woods, Varner, Joseph Bramlett and Cameron Champ. The First Tee, which was launched in 1997 in the aftermath of Woods’ stunning 12-shot victory at the Masters, says it has reached “more than 15 million young people” and has more than 1,200 chapters nationwide. It has raised millions of dollars for educational programs. And yet, it has produced exactly one PGA Tour player: Scott Langley, who is a minority—he’s left-handed.

Varner, who learned to play at Gastonia Municipal Golf Course (now Catawba Creek), where his father paid $100 a year so Harold could play Monday through Friday, has helped out The First Tee whenever asked and is now the spokesman for the group in North Carolina. But he doesn’t necessarily see it as the way to produce more minorities on tour.

“I think what they do is good, teaching kids right from wrong through golf,” he said. “I’m all for it. But it’s always felt to me like it was more day-care through golf than anything else.”

Varner will likely take the good away from his start at the Genesis, even after a frustrating finish. (Icon Sportswire)

Varner, who also sponsors an AJGA tournament in North Carolina, believes that more clubs—public and private—need to give kids unfettered access to their courses to produce more top young players. “You give the kids access, maybe give them a couple of lessons so they know the basics, then let them play. If they have the talent and the interest, they’ll get good.”

Varner is 29 and has been a good player since reaching the tour by finishing 25th on what was then the Web.com Tour in 2015. His best finish was a T-3 a year ago in the Northern Trust, and his best finish at the end of a season was last year, when he was 38th on the FedEx Tour points list. He has become what the media calls a “go-to guy” in the locker room because he’s smart, honest, funny and doesn’t hideout after a bad round.

Last May, he was tied for second going into the last round of the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black and found himself in the last group with leader Brooks Koepka. On a tough, windy day, Varner shot 81 and slid to T-36.

“I’m pissed, disappointed,” he said afterwards. “But it really was fun. I want to get back into this position as soon as I possibly can.”

Varner is a streaky player. He had missed four straight cuts going into Los Angeles. But he will no doubt look at the first 63 holes of the past week as the start of a good run because, as he says, he’s good at golf.

Four years ago, after the missed cut in Houston, he made his next nine cuts—including a T-9 in San Antonio, a T-8 in New Orleans and a seventh in Washington. He finished 75th on the points list for the year and has been solid ever since.

But he still hasn’t won on the PGA Tour. Clearly, that’s the next step for him. It also would be a big step for the tour. Varner’s good at golf, but he’s better at being a person. And he knows his job isn’t just about making birdies. It’s about reaching the next generation. Unlike a lot of athletes, he gets that. Which is why everyone in golf should be pulling for him to win—ASAP.

The post Despite a bad miss, Harold Varner III is still good at golf—and good for golf appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
This time, it’s official. A decade and a half after Adam Scott “won” a rain-shortened 36-hole tournament here, which isn’t formally recognized by the PGA Tour as a victory, the 39-year-old Aussie emerged victorious once more on a frenetic Sunday at an unseasonably fiery Riviera Country Club. A final-round 70 was good for a hard-earned two-shot triumph over Sung Kang, Scott Brown and Matt Kuchar at the Genesis Invitational.

Scott has always loved this golf course, his—and seemingly many other’s—favourite on tour. But he’s only kind of been able to call himself a past champion. There was no asterisk on the portrait of him in the clubhouse, but there may as well have been. Now? There’s no doubt, no footnote, no equivocations. Adam Scott has conquered Riviera.

“It’s incredibly satisfying to win a tournament of this stature on a golf course of this stature,” Scott said. “It was a wonderful week. It was incredibly enjoyable just being here with the weather like this, the course in perfect condition and a great field. Even better to come out on top and kind of have your game really tested today. It was not easy, and that was most enjoyable—to kind of see that my game is holding up.”

Officially, Scott’s Sunday win is the 14th of his PGA Tour career. (Chris Trotman)

The victory in 2005 didn’t count toward his career PGA Tour win haul, which now totals 14. This one—his first on the U.S. circuit since March 2016, though he did win the Australian PGA Championship in his last start before this, in December—could count double, given how tough it came, the course he won it on and the field he beat.

Nine of the top 10 in the world teed it up—including new World No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who started the day in a three-way tie for the lead with Scott and Kuchar but flamed out of contention with a triple-bogey 7 on the fifth hole Sunday.

Scott was ranked No. 14 at the start of the week. But he will jump inside the top 10 on Monday for the first time in nearly two years, as he’s projected to reach No. 7 when the new World Rankings drop Monday.

“My career is in a good spot,” he said. “You know, even before winning this week, I feel like physically and somewhat mentally I’m OK after 20 years out here. I really do believe if I can maintain motivation and focus, the next five years can be my best years on tour.”

At his best, no one makes hitting a golf ball look simpler than Scott, his picture-perfect swing long-serving as a model for junior golfers everywhere. He’s equally smooth off the course, with his measured cadence and soothing Australian accent. He’s just … easy.

But Sunday was anything but.

After a room-service dinner and a phone call to his daughter Bo-Vera, who turned 5 over the weekend, Scott slept on a share of the lead Saturday night knowing he was in for a challenge. At the start of the final round, there were 16 players within four shots of the lead, including McIlroy—who Scott called a “benchmark of the game” on Saturday—and Kuchar and Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm.

Scott took the lead alone with birdies on the first and third holes, but he found himself playing catchup after going bogey/double bogey on Nos. 4 and 5. he bounced back with a birdie after nearly holing his tee shot on the par-4 sixth and then made six straight steady pars.

“On four and five, it could have really slipped away, but it’s in those moments where you just have to cliché everything and get back in your process, or stay in the moment and just do what’s been working well,” Scott said. “It’s not time to kind of get flustered and try something new on the sixth hole of the final round. I just really tried to do what I had done all week on that next swing and made a good swing and made a good putt.”

Chris Trotman

Pars were good currency all day in what can only be described as major-like conditions. February in Los Angeles usually brings with it some measure of moisture, but a dry couple weeks led to a dry course and firmer greens than any Genesis in recent memory. That, as well as a breezy afternoon and brutal pin conditions, created a golf course that simply didn’t yield many birdies. The lowest score of the day was three-under 68.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it was,” McIlroy said. “But everyone was finding it tough out there.”

Indeed they were. Added Kuchar: “It was one hard day out there. [Caddie] John Wood pulled me aside on the driving range—he knew I wasn’t playing my best, and he said, ‘Listen, those pin locations are harder today. You play smart, par’s going to be good on every hole.’ That was my game plan.”

Kuchar hung around all day, as did Dustin Johnson before two late bogeys cost him. Hometown boy Max Homa was in with a shout until his tee shot on the par-3 16th plugged in the bunker, and Joel Dahmen had an outside chance before missing a must-make birdie at 17. It was that kind of day—no less than 10 players looked to be legitimate threats to win at varying points of the afternoon. Tournament host Tiger Woods was not one of those players, as he shot a six-over 77 after yet another brutal day on the Poa annua greens, finishing last in the field for all players who made the cut.

Amid all the movement around him, Scott never wavered, even after he found a plugged lie in a bunker of his own on 15 and had to summon a brilliant flop shot to save bogey. After a solid par on 16, he sealed the win with a birdie on the par-5 17th, set up by a 338-yard drive that split the fairway. A two-putt par on the iconic 18th finished it.

“Hopefully it does just give me the confidence to play a little better, and certainly those feelings of what it’s like being in contention is good. Especially coming into the majors.”

The post Adam Scott’s second victory at Riviera won’t include an asterisk appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
In 2005, inclement weather shortened the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club to 36 holes, meaning Adam Scott’s victory was not recognized as an official win. Fifteen years later, Scott walked off the 18th green victorious again, and this one they can’t take away from him.

The 39-year-old Aussie finished all 72 holes this time around, shooting 72, 64, 67 and Sunday’s one-under 70 to win by two strokes over Sung Kang, Scott Brown and Matt Kuchar, who held a share of the lead after all three rounds.

“It’s amazing, I’ve loved this place from day one and it was tough out there today but the crowd is incredible,” said Scott. “I feel like they were on my side out there. I’m stoked for this.”

The win is Scott’s first since March of 2016, when he claimed the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral one week after winning the Honda Classic.

“It feels very special,” he added.

Rory McIlroy, who played in the final group alongside Scott and Kuchar, shot a two-over 73 and finished in a tie for fifth. Dustin Johnson tied for 10th at seven under.

The post Adam Scott claims second* career victory at Riviera appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.