Fantasy Insider: BMW Championship

One of the PGA TOUR’s most famed and historic tracks, The Riviera Country Club has been providing Hollywood-caliber drama for almost a century. With an iconic bunker in the middle of a green, a natural amphitheater and one of the world’s most recognizable short par-4s, Riviera demands a variety of shots to conquer its terrain. Coming off Max Homa’s playoff win over Tony Finau in 2021, this year’s edition will have its hands full to live up to the hype. But with one of the strongest fields on the PGA TOUR so far this season, a new star can join Riviera’s Walk of Fame (and win at a course that has befuddled the two greatest players in the game’s history). 1. WHAT A START The first hole at Riviera is an early feast opportunity for PGA TOUR players. The par 5 plays roughly 495 yards from a tee box that sits 75 foot above the fairway. While there’s out-of-bounds on the left and trees on the right, a straight drive should offer an eagle opportunity all four days. Only four par-5s played to a lower scoring average (4.28) last season, and it was the easiest opening hole on TOUR in 2021. It traditionally plays as the easiest hole at Riviera, as well. The difficulty dramatically shifts right after. The second hole, the No. 1 handicap hole, presents a 488-yard par 4 that heads back uphill, again with out-of-bounds on the left and trees on the right. A long, narrow green is just 25 feet wide and protected by bunkers on the left and front. Despite having different pars, the scoring averages for the two holes are usually separated by just a fraction of a stroke. They played to an average of 4.28 and 4.15, respectively, in 2021. While Riviera’s greens are the same Poa annua that players face throughout the West Coast, the Kikuyu fairways and rough offer a unique challenge. The sticky Kikuyu grass grabs balls like Velcro and makes it hard to execute bump-and-run shots around Riviera. 2. IN THE MIDDLE You do this if you are creating a golf course in a video game, but not usually if you are an architect building a PGA TOUR-caliber track. Long before video games existed, George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell had a unique vision for Riviera’s par-3 sixth hole, putting what is now one of the world’s most famous bunkers smack in the middle of the green. If having a sand trap in the middle of the green is not enough, the putting surface is also two-tiered with a lower level mostly in front of the bunker and an upper level mostly behind the bunker. An errant tee shot, even just a few feet off-line, could find a player scrambling to putt around or pitch over the trap, even needing to pull out a wedge from the putting surface. There is no true safe shot on the green, as all four quadrants bring the center bunker into play. And that is before mentioning there are other bunkers in the back, left and front portions of the green. Birdie is manageable when on the correct tier of the green, but the landing spot can determine the difference between a two or a four quickly. 3. MUST-SEE TV Drivable par 4s are en vogue these days and perhaps No. 10 at Riviera sets the standards for those holes. Measuring anywhere from 282 to 315 yards, most players can hit the green if the conditions are right. However, such a tee shot challenges even the best shot-shapers in the world, with bunkers protecting the green on its right, left and back. The combination of deep bunkers and a skinny putting surface make getting up-and-down difficult, especially from the sand. Right-handed players will try to launch a power-fade, while left-handed players need to sweep a draw to the front-left portion of the green. The lay-up shot isn’t forgiving. A bunker running across the left portion of the fairway forces players to lay up to a full wedge shot if not going for the green. A handful of trees also run along the fairway left of the green. Homa famously found his ball lying next to one of those trees during the first playoff hole against Finau last year, but Homa was able to skip a shot out and match Finau with a par. Unlike No. 17 at TPC Scottsdale, where a water hazard provides penalty trouble for those taking a shot at the green (as Sahith Theegala found out last week), trees and bunkers are the issue on this drivable par 4. A miscue left or right off the tee and a player can go from envisioning eagle to scrambling for par, even without a penalty stroke. 4. HOLLYWOOD DRAMA Riviera is truly one of the OG staples of the Los Angeles social scene. The Hollywood sign – then Hollywoodland – was erected in 1923. Riviera opened its doors in 1926. At the time, with a cost of $243,827, Riviera was labeled as one of the most expensive golf courses in the world. The club has long-attracted famous members, with such Hollywood names as Humphrey Bogart, Walt Disney and Dean Martin making the course their home (“Bogey’s Tree,” a trimmed Eucalyptus on the 12th hole is allegedly where Bogart used to sit to heckle pros). In the 1950s, golf films “Pat and Mike” – starring Katharine Hepburn and Babe Zaharias – and “The Caddy” – starring Martin and Jerry Lewis – were both filmed at Riviera. “Follow the Sun,” a 1951 biographical film about Ben Hogan, was also taped at Riviera. And in more modern times, Seinfeld co-creater and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David helped raise money for the club’s caddies during the pandemic. The Genesis Invitational has been held at Riviera dating all the way back to 1929, hosting the event all but two years since 1973. The exceptions were in 1983, when the club hosted the PGA Championship, and in 1998, when it hosted the U.S. Senior Open. Riviera also has been the venue for the 1948 U.S. Open, 1995 PGA Championship, and 2017 U.S. Amateur. It is scheduled to host the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open, as well. The club will add Olympic golf to its history at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, although this won’t be the Olympics’ first foray on the grounds. Dressage equestrian and modern pentathlon were held at Riviera in 1932. Living up to its Hollywood pedigree, the 18th hole green is surrounded by a natural amphitheater, creating golf’s version of the Hollywood Bowl. As players stare down the 18th green, with Riviera’s iconic clubhouse in the background, the gallery seated on the hillside is staring directly down at them. 5. HOGAN’S ALLEY, BUT NO TIGER OR JACK Ben Hogan was one of Riviera’s early heroes, winning the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in 1947 and 1948 and the U.S. Open there in 1948. His dominance during that two-year stretch gave the course the nickname, “Hogan’s Alley,” a moniker it shares with Colonial Country Club for a similar reason. Hogan also finished runner-up in 1950, losing a playoff to Sam Snead in his return to the TOUR after his near-fatal car accident. Snead, Tom Watson, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson all also notched multiple wins at Riviera over the next few decades. Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Mike Weir, Adam Scott, and Dustin Johnson are among other modern winners. But the two jarring names you will not find on the champions’ plaque: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Nicklaus made his professional debut at Riviera in 1962, tying for 50th place as a 21-year-old, earning $33.33 in prize money. He notched his best finish in 1978, grabbing runner-up honors two strokes behind Gil Morgan. Woods made his PGA TOUR debut at Riviera in 1992, driving up from Orange County as a 16-year-old high school sophomore (and amateur). He missed the cut. Woods’ best finish at Riviera was second in 1999, behind Els by two strokes. Since 2016, Woods has been the host of the Genesis Invitational with his TGR Foundation being the benefiting charity. But despite his connection to the course, Riviera is a place Woods has still never been able to lift a PGA TOUR trophy.

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Johnson races out to 6-shot lead in WGC-HSBC

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As they embarked on professional careers soaked with potential, four players shared the stage at the 2019 Travelers Championship in Connecticut. Three of them — Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff — went on to win PGA TOUR titles more rapidly than anyone could have expected. The transition to the TOUR is rarely that easy. The fourth member of the group learned that first-hand. The resume that Justin Suh compiled at the University of Southern California could more than hold its own with his three peers. Six months atop the world amateur rankings. A Pac-12 Player of the Year award. And a spot on the All-American first team. But what wasn’t known when the moderator alluded to the bright future that lay ahead for the four players is that Suh was nursing a wrist injury that would send his swing off-kilter. That malady, and a global pandemic, delayed his path to the PGA TOUR. While Morikawa and Wolff both won on TOUR within weeks of that press conference, and Hovland earned his TOUR card via that year’s Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Suh failed to advance out of the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. He is known for a relentless optimism, but even he could not find a silver lining. “It sucks,” he said. “Absolutely sucks.” There was no chance at redemption the next year, as Q-School was one of the many tournaments canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. While his peers were on the PGA TOUR, he spent time on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and was a regular at Monday qualifiers. Suddenly, the path seemed undefined. But this is where that optimism was so valuable, allowing him to keep working even as his future was full of uncertainty. Progress was made last fall, when he earned Korn Ferry Tour status via Q-School. The season got off to an inauspicious start but as the spring came, Suh’s talent began to shine through. There was a stretch of nine events where his worst finish was T27. The consistency continued into the summer and then he saved his best for last, earning his first professional title at the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. With top-25s in two-thirds of his 24 starts, including 10 top-10s, Suh finished atop the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long points race, which earned him fully-exempt status and spots in THE PLAYERS Championship and the first U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, not far from where he was a collegiate star. At this week’s Fortinet Championship, the San Jose, California, native is making his first start as a PGA TOUR member just 90 miles from his hometown. “Justin is one of the happiest people that I’ve ever met in my entire life,” said longtime friend and fellow TOUR player Joseph Bramlett, who won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship a year before Suh did. The two now live in Las Vegas and practice together almost every day when they’re home. “I haven’t once seen him feel sorry for himself. I haven’t once seen him dejected. The kid just shows up every day with a great attitude, and it’s impressive.” Suh wasn’t about to let his early struggles, including that Q-School misstep, derail him. He’d been building toward a professional golf career since his dad first put a plastic club in his hand around the age of 4. Suh followed in the footsteps of his older sister Hannah, an acclaimed junior golfer who eventually played for Cal. She’d get a lesson, then teach him what she had been taught. They’d spend hours competing at the course, with stakes like push-ups or the “five bucks we saved up.” This environment kept Suh from ever getting burnt out, he figures. Her success also fueled him. “I was always left at home when she was flying to all these tournaments,” Suh laughed. “I remember that was one of the goals; I wanted where my parents would fly me out to play a golf tournament. That was the one goal.” Suh moved from California to Georgia when he was 6 – his parents are in the restaurant business, and they had an opportunity there – and then back to California at age 8. Competitive by nature and physically well-rounded, Suh has a pure love for the game – he fondly recalls crucial putts and momentum swings in Junior Golf Association of Northern California events – Suh fulfilled his first golf goal and flew to compete at some of the biggest junior events. He got on the radar of several college coaches across the country, including USC’s Chris Zambri, and the interest was reciprocal. “He’s got to be one of the more, if not the most skilled, mentally that I’ve ever coached,” Zambri said. “He doesn’t go down any negative roads, which is interesting to be around as another human being; most of us turn down those roads often. I enjoyed witnessing that and just learning from it personally. “There’s a difference between being a positive person and being mentally skilled, dealing with pressure well, and he does it all.” Click here to subscribe to #TOURBound, the official podcast of the Korn Ferry Tour. After all those secondhand lessons from his sister, Justin’s golf sense was well developed into his collegiate career, but there was one area he needed to refine. He needed to hit the ball higher to compete on the longer, tougher course setups that he encountered in college golf. He and instructor Bill Johnson – Justin’s swing coach to this day – went about building a swing to maximize long-term potential and success. “He had an interesting swing,” Zambri said about Suh before college. “He was a steep low-ball hitter, and we decided he might need to change that, and he just dove in. He made that commitment, where a lot of people don’t have the foresight to buy into something like that; it might hurt their score the next handful of times they play. “He waited a bit to really dive in, until tournaments were over, then he just dove in and never looked back.” It led Suh to become a two-time First Team All-American and the world’s No. 1 amateur. It led him to a seat at a table alongside Hovland, Morikawa and Wolff in Connecticut. He just had a speed bump on the road to the biggest stage – and perhaps he’ll be stronger for it. “It’s not who I am,” Suh said of keeping the setbacks from overtaking him. “I’ve always just lived my life and whatever happens, happens; control what I can control, and I just needed to get better. I couldn’t do anything about those guys being so successful early; I just knew I had to get better. “I worked hard, worked on the right stuff, asked a lot of people what to work on, got gradually better, and I’m grateful I’m in the position I’m in now.” While a fierce competitor, Suh also enjoys the sweeter side of life. He fondly recalls his parents’ ice cream machine and was such a regular at a Korean barbecue restaurant in Los Angeles that his picture is on the wall. I haven’t once seen him feel sorry for himself. I haven’t once seen him dejected. The kid just shows up every day with a great attitude, and it’s impressive In high school, he’d play pickup basketball into the darkness. Kobe Bryant is one of his sports heroes, and he embraces the “Mamba Mentality.” He lived in a house with the tennis team in college, and he enjoys an occasional pickleball game and a hike – although he admits it can be tricky to find time for outdoor adventuring on the road, and that he’s in search of a new hobby. His favorite part of winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship wasn’t the trophy, or the fully-exempt TOUR status, or the access to some of golf’s biggest events. It was winning a bet with Bramlett – last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship winner. “We played for dinner this week, so he owes me a dinner,” said a beaming Suh. “Something expensive. Something really expensive.” Success might have been expected, but it’s not given, and Suh knows that. That’s why, after clinching his TOUR card in August, his voice broke as he recorded a selfie video for social media. Reflecting on his journey, all the way back to those days chasing his sister with a plastic club in his hands, and the people who supported him along the way made him emotional. His voice broke, if just a touch. “It was a moment of being overwhelmed with emotions,” Suh said afterward. “It was a moment to reflect on what I’ve done and what I’ve achieved, and to be officially #TOURBound was a big moment. “Since the day I started playing golf, it was always the dream.”

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