The Riviera Country Club
As I go through my own top 100 list of courses to do a quick write up and share photos, I never realized how many I played where I didn’t have my camera or where my photos were lost in a computer crash. Riviera is one of the latter but was such an awesome course that 13 years later I still really remember the holes pretty well. It helps that I had Riv on a computer golf game (2003 Links) and they have a great hole-by-hole video on their website.
I played Riviera in 2007 with my buddy Mike shortly after switching jobs and my new job brought me to the LA area for a little over a month every Spring, every year for about seven or eight years. I got to play a few nice courses out here and Riviera is the most renowned.
It has everything. It’s exclusive. Great design. Great clubhouse. Celebrity membership. History. Conditioning. PGA tournament pedigree. And holes 3 through 18 make it one of the top 20 courses I’ve ever played. Here’s my nit-pick before I go on. If you Google the best first holes in golf, some put this hole on their list. I like that it’s a short par five from an elevated tee that you need to avoid bunkers in your landing area to give even a modest fella the chance for hitting the green in two. But! The cart barn or whatever it is and maintenance area to the left of the fairway with the truck, not cart but truck, path for the utility vehicles dissecting the fairway is the view you get from this elevated tee. What a waste of a great elevated first tee. Fencing people, you can afford it. And trees, please. You go to Riviera. You’re all geeked up and the view you get from the first tee box is straight outta Compton. Compare that to Manufacturer’s in Philly. An elevated first tee allows you to look out over the entire golf course and appreciate the round you’re about to play.
Hole two is a brute. almost the same length as one but a par four. Great bunkering. Great green complex. But! The driving range netting towering over the left side of the hole (two runs adjacent to one but back toward the clubhouse) just takes away from the beauty of this beast of a hole. Same issue I had with Pasatiempo on its first hole. I get it you need a range and not every course is blessed with Pine Valley’s acreage to hide the ugly bastard in a corner of the property, but mounding and trees instead of a mile high net would be the smile on the Mona Lisa for this hole. IMO.
From that point on, there’s nary a flaw with this course. I love that the halfway house is strategically located to allow you to load up on bloodies after two. Make sure you bring a bucket and shovel because you will be playing in the sand a lot at Riviera. Just about every green is ringed with deep and menacing bunkers. For God’s sake there’s a bunker in the middle of the green on six – definitely unorthodox but very unique. I likey!
There are some brutally tough holes on this course. Eight was one of those. They recently removed the trees from the middle of the two fairways. That’s a good thing. When I played you had to be able to dial up a long fade to get around the trees and onto the upper fairway and (Dad joke alert) when I try and dial up a long fade I usually get the wrong number and dial a wicked slice.
The short tenth is awesome and deserves all of the accolades it gets. Driver, flip wedge, but you better hit both perfect as the green is about two super models’ wide. There’s another maintenance shed behind ten but this one is better camouflaged and doesn’t ruin the view. Eleven runs back along the range fence, but is better hidden and didn’t distract me from enjoying the hole.
The rest of the holes are equally intriguing and 18 is one of the quintessential finishing holes in golf. Hopefully I get access to my old hard drive and can update this with the photos I took.
If you’re planning a buddies trip to LA, make sure you bring your most connected of buddies as your public/resort options are limited and a pretty long ride north, east, or south to get to. If you have connections, Riviera, Bel Air, Wilshire, Sherwood (which is a little bit of a ride), even Mountain Gate which overlooks the 405 are all great. LACC is missing from that list as I haven’t been able to get on so if you have THOSE kind of connections, definitely count me in! For eats, my favorite is Angellini’s Osteria in West Hollywood. Tiny. Italian. The best bronzino (Mediterranean sea bass) in the country. Katsuya has a few locations throughout the area and is the best sushi. Don’t hate on Spago in Beverly Hills because you think it’s too touristy – it’s great and Wolfgang joined us for appies there once. Chinois on Main (Santa Monica) is great too.
For the ultimate old-time Hollywood experience, get a Cabana room at the Hollywood Roosevelt. The cabana bar around the pool is always a hoot (I’m remembering it pre COVID-19 mind you who knows what effect Numbnuts Newsom had on it). If you’re looking for peaceful repose, go elsewhere but the vibe is super cool if you don’t mind waking up to some drunk passed out on one of your chaises. This actually happened to me one stay. The original Academy Awards was held there and it’s right on the Hollywood Boulevard freak show across from the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Since I have no photos of Riviera, I did add some of the Hollywood Roosevelt and Cabana area (they were having a cast/crew party for Arrested Development).
Golf Scrapbook 