On Riviera's Tenth

Throwback Thursday is the moniker being thrown around after Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen found themselves tied with four others for the lead at the quarter pole in L.A.  Amusingly they played together with 28 year old Brian Harmon, who of course shot 78.

It's early days of course, but while Veej has never been my cup of tea, I'd be pleased to see Retief reclaim his form.  But it's the 10th hole generating the buzz.  It's all of 312 yards, but the best players in the world would take a four in a heartbeat.  Our favorite player-critic Geoff Ogilvy penned this Ode to No. 10:

For me, the ideal short par-4 has a few basic characteristics. It must be potentially

Is there a green tucked in there somewhere?

drivable for a professional or scratch amateur. It must be a relatively easy par for all -- whatever their handicap -- who give up ideas of making birdie and plot a sensible and safe route from tee to green. Conversely, for the over-ambitious keen to make birdie or even eagle, it must be fraught with danger and risk. 

The 313-yard 10th at Riviera ticks all of those boxes.

For anyone who watched, and the PGATour.com Live @ coverage is just brilliant, under this week's conditions there are no easy pars.  One more bit from Geoff:

The real genius of this hole, however, is the bunker on the left side of the fairway [the bunker in the center-left of the above photo, shaded by the tree]. It is the only relevant bunker off the tee. There are others, but all they really do is mess with your depth perception. The more you “challenge” the left bunker with your tee-shot, the easier your approach will be. In other words, the closer your ball is to the sand, the greater your chance of making a four or a three. That is another mark of a truly great hole -- even a “safe” shot is interesting.

 Now it player really hard yesterday, as we'll get into, but these were Geoff's words after his round:

Q. Talk about the 10th. Is it getting a little edgy with the shaved areas?

GEOFF OGILVY: It's a lot tougher than it used to be. It's hard to criticize such a good hole. It's a lot harder than it used to be, especially when the pins are at the back like today. I don't think you can go to the middle section of the green anymore because there's a lot of pitch on the green and how fast it is. It's one of the top four or five holes we play all year on Tour. It's a joy to play even when you're putting a five on the card.

Q. Balls that go off the green ‑‑ you didn't hit a bad shot?

GEOFF OGILVY: I have to think when they try to get more out of a great hole, that's all they are really trying to do. It's everyone's favorite hole, really and they are just trying to get more out of it. It's pretty good. The greens are a lot firmer than we are used to playing. They were just a bit softer a few years ago. Now it takes that big first bounce and goes in that bunker really easy. 

It's a really, really good hole and definitely getting harder.

I take that to mean that the set-up is perhaps a little too harsh.  Certainly Shack thinks so, as per this:

I always have thought the short par-4 10th's character was so strong that it could survive the Fazio-inspired over-meddling that has quietly taken so much of the nuance out of Riviera in recent years.

The 311-yard hole averaged 4.201 during round one play of the Northern Trust Open. For a hole of that length to average so much over par in perfect weather? Red flag. 

A damp, cloudy morning followed by very little afternoon breeze should have let some of the world's best score. But too often good shots or almost great shots were excessively penalized by the combination of factors both manufactured and accidental. With a drought and ideal turf-growing weather coming into Northern Trust Open week, the course has never looked better and the greens very firm for February. That's a testament to the shrewd practices. However, this little bit of added firmness when combined with the lowering of evolved bunker edges and the practice of rolling the surrounds has tipped the scales. The 10th hole's risk-reward dynamic has shifted to mostly risk and little reward for taking chances. On a strategy-driven hole that is the centerpiece of the tournament, this has not been a positive evolution.

Here's the Bomb Damage Assessment, via ShotLink:

Alas we don't have any post-round comments from this gentleman:

Here's what it looked like on ShotLink:

No doubt the green is extremely firm and is a very small target.  But the real problem to me seems to be the bunkers, where every shot that crosses the green rolls through the bunker far enough to end up on the downslope.  Blasting off the downslope to the hard, firm, unreceptive sliver of an island is awfully tough, and in many cases even the best players in the world have no chance.

I think Shack and Ogilvy probably have it right, and I wonder if they'll be giving the green an added dose of water.  But it remains a fascinating test for these great players and is way more interesting to watch them think their way around than perhaps any other hole played on Tour.