The Honda Classic kicks off the Florida Swing with water, water everywhere at PGA National.
PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida – site of this week’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour – originally was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and was renovated by Jack Nicklaus in 2014.
The Champion opened in 1981 and was home to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the U.S. beat Europe 14.5-13.5. It also hosted the 1987 PGA Championship, in which Larry Nelson beat Lanny Wadkins in a playoff. This week’s Honda Classic is the first stop on the Tour’s annual Florida Swing.
Nicklaus’ redesign includes a three-hole stretch dubbed the Bear Trap on Nos. 15, 16 and 17. Two watery par 3s with the wet stuff short and right, plus a par 4 over and around more water, typically demand bravado and supreme ballstriking as the tournament is decided.
PGA National Resort is home to 99 holes of golf in all and has recently undergone a $100 million renovation that includes the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.
The Champion Course will play to 7,125 yards with a par of 70 for the Honda Classic.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
No. 10 at Riviera steals much of the architectural spotlight each year during the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational, offering players a glimpse of a drivable par-4 green that most of them fail to reach from the tee.
But it is in no way the only bit of interesting design at Riviera, the California classic gem that has hosted three major championships and became synonymous with Ben Hogan decades ago, earning the moniker “Hogan’s Alley.” Riviera ranks No. 4 in California onGolfweek’s Best list of private courses, and it is No. 18 on Golfweek’s Best list of all classic courses built in the U.S. before 1960.
Another favored hole is No. 6, a 199-yard par 3 with a bunker sunk in the putting surface. Not to the side, not front or back, but almost in the middle of the putting surface.
Riviera isn’t the only course to present such a feature, but it is rare. And while it’s possible to putt around it if your tee shot lands on the putting surface but on the opposite side of the sand from the flag stick, there are plenty of pros who have not been amused over the years.
The StrackaLine yardage book for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, site of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational, shows the bunker embedded in the green of No. 6. (Courtesy of StrackaLine)
Billy Casper, for example, was a supreme strategist with one of the best short games on the PGA Tour in the 1950s and ’60s. A shorter hitter than other stars of that era such as Jack Nicklaus, Casper pitched and putted his way to 57 Tour wins and three major titles.
But even Casper was flummoxed by the bunker in the middle of the green on the sixth hole at Riviera Country Club. One year in the Los Angeles Open – now the Genesis Invitational – Casper was on that green after his tee shot but on the wrong side of the pit, with no great options to putt around the trap.
Irritated, the normally reserved Casper is said to have taken three practice swings, each removing a chunk of grass from the green. He then cleanly pitched his ball from off the surface of the green to within a few inches of the hole to save par. He had made his point with the practice swings.
The StrackaLine yardage book for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, site of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational (Courtesy of StrackaLine)
Most of the time, players who end up on the wrong side of the bunker can use the serious slopes to guide the ball relatively close to the hole, or at least to the proper side of the bunker. At least that’s the plan, but it’s no easy task. Three-putts are plentiful, and there have been dozens of four-putts on that green since 2003. In 2011, Brian Davis four-putted the hole in consecutive rounds.
A view from behind No. 6 at Riviera for the Genesis Invitational, with its infamous bunker toward the left of the frame (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
The key is to hit the approach to the proper side, but even Tour pros miss sometimes. And among those who do, there are still some players willing to swipe a wedge off the putting surface to loft the ball over the sand, regardless of the divot such a play might leave on the green. And yes, it’s completely within the rules. Players can use any of their 14 clubs at any time, and no rule says a player must use a putter on a green.
It’s all part of Riviera’s charm, so long as you aren’t the player who managed to hit the green in regulation and still find yourself short-sided.
Short 10th at Riviera is long on challenge in the Genesis Invitational.
The par-4 10th at Riviera Country Club is easily within range of all the players on the PGA Tour, with the green downhill and the hole checking in at just 315 yards on the scorecard. Each year during the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational, No. 10 appears to be the epitome of a short, drivable hole – ripe for the taking.
Except it isn’t.
The PGA Tour reports that during the 2021 Genesis, there were 373 total tee shots on No. 10, with 297 of those taking aim at the green or its surrounds. Of those, only five came to rest on the putting surface. That’s a 1.7-percent success rate, and Tour pros never really take on tee shots that offer those kinds of odds. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be on Tour long.
And that’s the genius of the 10th, designed by George C. Thomas and William P. Bell on the track that opened in 1927 in Pacific Palisades on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The whole place is genius, come to think of it: Riviera ranks No. 4 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses, and it is No. 18 on Golfweek’s Best list of all classic courses built in the U.S. before 1960.
The StrackaLine yardage book for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, site of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational (Courtesy of StrackaLine)
Even the pros sometimes struggle to decide how best to hit that tee shot and commit fully to it. It’s a quandary incited by the heavily sloping green, the cross bunkers, even a handful of palm trees. It’s a green that’s easy to miss from 100 yards, from 20 yards, from the front bunker, from the back bunker – it’s as much a Ping Pong table as a putting surface, and it’s not uncommon to see players go back and forth over the green on successive shots. Nowhere is precision more greatly demanded than on the likely pitch into No. 10, especially when the flag is in the back-right portion of the green. Trajectory, spin and distance control are all musts.
An array of cross-bunkers complicate matters off the tee for anyone attempting to play conservatively, but Tour pros can basically ignore those hazards should they choose to smack driver or even 3-wood off the tee. Two other bunkers flank the landing area some 40-50 yards short of the green, and another bunker waits just short of the green on the direct path to the hole.
The putting surface runs diagonally from front-left to back-right between three greenside bunkers, and the surface itself is tilted dramatically to the back and left. The best angle of approach is from left of the green, allowing the player the most surface with which to work while threading the bunkers. Many players hedge to the left off the tee in attempt to set up that angle, but that means the tee ball must avoid the left fairway bunker, several palm trees and an assortment of shrubbery.
The StrackaLine yardage book for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, site of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational (Courtesy of StrackaLine)
Even if a pro navigates all that safely with a solid tee shot that finds safety left of the green, it’s not uncommon to see players miss the green or hit shots woefully short of the flag, especially when it’s in the back-right. The sloping green challenges every kind of pitch or chip, constantly steering balls back and to the left.
Actually reaching the front-left portion of the green off the tee doesn’t necessarily set up a short eagle putt or a breezy two-putt birdie. The Tour reported that of those five tee balls that found the putting surface in 2021, only one of them ended up within 60 feet of the hole – Harold Varner III struck his tee ball to 18 feet 4 inches from the cup in the fourth round and made birdie. The other four players still had plenty of work left.
The 10th hole at Riviera Country Club, site of the Genesis Invitational. (Photo: Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
Worth noting: Only one player made eagle on No. 10 in 2021, and it came in a most unlikely fashion. In the first round, Sergio Garcia hit his tee shot into one of the worst spots, the right fairway bunker. From there, he blasted his ball from the sand 44 yards into the cup. Nobody would ever suggest deliberately taking such a route.
It all seems so simple, but clearly it’s not. The 10th played to a 3.88 scoring average in 2021, and in 2018 it played to a scoring average over par at 4.06, according to ShotLink data provided by the Tour. It ranks as the second-toughest par 4 of less than 350 yards on Tour since 2013 with a 3.92 scoring average in that span, trailing only No. 2 at Spyglass Hill (4.01).
Despite its challenges, the pros have figured out it’s better to take your chances with a blast toward the green or just left of it. Since the ShotLink era began in 2003, there have been 8,002 tee shots on No. 10 in the Genesis. Almost 59 percent of players have gone for the green off the tee in that span, and they are a combined 846 under par. The 41 percent of players who laid up are a combined 131 over par in that span.
Jordan Spieth hits from a greenside bunker on the 10th hole during the final round of the 2019 Genesis at Riviera Country Club. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Some more breakdowns from the Tour: Of the players who hit the green off the tee since 2003, 72 percent of them made birdie or better – that means more than a quarter of them three-putted or worse.
Of those in the left portion of the fairway off the tee, 33 percent made birdie. From the left rough, that birdie-or-better percentage drops to 24 percent. From the right side of the fairway, 27 percent of players made birdie or better, and from the right rough only 14 percent made birdie or eagle. Remember, these are Tour pros with wedges in their hands.
Also in that span, 62 percent of players managed to hit the green from the left rough – and that’s just a pitch shot. The odds are better from the left fairway, but still only 75 percent of the shots struck from Tour pros find the green on that pitch or chip. From the right side of the fairway, just 61 percent of players hit the green, and only 31 percent of balls found the green from the right rough.
In an age when so much emphasis is placed on swing speed and distance, it’s a blast to watch the Tour pros struggle with such a tricky hole. The green is almost over the top – and some pros certainly would make that assertion. But it’s fun, for one week, to see the pros struggle with such a short but dramatic challenge.
StrackaLine’s heat maps for Riviera’s greens are intense.
Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California – site of this week’s Genesis Invitational on the PGA Tour – was designed by George C. Thomas and William P. Bell and opened in 1927.
This week will be the 59th time the club has hosted what has become the Genesis Invitational, and it also has hosted three major championships. Ben Hogan won the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera, with Hal Sutton (1983) and Steve Elkington (1995) having won PGA Championships there. It is slated as the host site for the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2028 Olympics golf competition.
It will play at 7,322 yards with a par of 71 for the Genesis.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
If you’re not one to hush up for golf, check out five thoughts on the 16th at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course.
A party. A par-3. The loudest scene in golf. A chance to cut loose and show a very different side of golf, where pros can interact with fans in ways not seen anywhere else. A chance to elicit wild cheers, or maybe lose a tournament to the sound of boos late in the final round.
Called the Coliseum, No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course is many things to different people. What the atmosphere is most of all, especially to those who attend, is unforgettable – assuming they haven’t been overserved.
Dubbed the People’s Open, the WM Phoenix Open – rebranded this year to condense Waste Management to WM – has been played at the Stadium Course since 1987. And it has become for many the can’t-miss event on the PGA Tour calendar.
A group of men dressed like Richard Simmons pose in the birds nest at No. 16 during the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Nicole Neri/The Republic)
And the 16th is the star of a show that can host more than 200,000 fans in a day. The event no longer offers up statistics on fan attendance since the 2019 event, but on Saturday in 2018, more than 216,000 fans attended the event.
Not to be lost in all the noise and revelry is that the Thunderbirds, the charitable organization that operates the event, has raised more than $160 million and counting for Arizona charities – No. 16 is great and all, but the numbers 1 and 6 look even better when followed by all those zeroes, in this case.
A drone view of the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course in 2020 (Golfweek files)
Also worth noting: The Stadium Course, designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1986, ranks No. 5 in Arizona on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It will play at 7,261 yards with a par of 71. And with those details taken care of, check out several of the more-interesting themes of No. 16 – and what comes after.
How long is No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, and for that matter, every other hole at the Wm Phoenix Open?
TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course in Arizona, home to the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open this week, was designed by the team of Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. It opened in 1986 and was renovated in 2014, and the desert layout has been the site of the Tour event since 1987.
Most famous for its par-3 16th hole, site of a massive party and ringed by coliseum-like grandstands during the Tour event, the Stadium Course ranks No. 5 in Arizona on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It will play at 7,261 yards with a par of 71.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
The acclaimed coastal layout was designed by amateur architects. Take a look at all the challenges they created, courtesy of StrackaLine.
The famed Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of three courses used in this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour, was designed by amateur architects Douglas Grant and Jack Neville. The layout on cliffs above the Pacific Ocean opened in 1919.
The first three rounds of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am – Thursday through Saturday – also will be played on nearby Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course. Sunday’s final round after the cut will be played only on Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Pebble Beach has been home to six U.S. Opens and slated to host the event again in 2027. It also hosted the 1977 PGA Championship and has been home to the pro-am since 1947.
This week Pebble Beach Golf Links will play to 6,972 yards with a par of 72.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
Check out StackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps for Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course in Pebble Beach, California – one of three layouts used in this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour – opened in 1959 but was extensively renovated by architect Mike Strantz beginning in 2003.
Taking advantage of the unique coastal setting, Strantz designed 12 new holes and remodeled the others that originally were laid out by Bob Baldock and Jack Neville. The result of Strantz’s work has elevated the private club to a tie for No. 27 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses built in or after 1960 in the United States. It also ranks No. 8 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses.
The first three rounds of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am – Thursday through Saturday – also will be played on nearby Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach Golf Links. Sunday’s final round after the cut will be played only on Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The Shore Course will play to 6,957 yards with a par of 71 in the PGA Tour event.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps for the Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout in California that will host the PGA Tour event.
Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach, California – one of three courses used in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour – was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1966. The layout features an opening five holes through dunes to the water’s edge before climbing into a forest for the rest of the round.
The first three rounds of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am – Thursday through Saturday – also will be played on nearby Pebble Beach Golf Links and Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course. Sunday’s final round after the cut will be played only on Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps for the PGA Tour event in San Diego.
Torrey Pines’ South Course in San Diego is the site for three of the four rounds in this week’s PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open alongside the Pacific Ocean, which will be played Wednesday through Saturday.
The first two rounds of the event will be on the South Course and the North Course at the municipal facility, and the final two rounds will be played on the South after a cut is made. The South was home to Jon Rahm’s U.S. Open victory in 2021 and Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open title in 2008.
The South was designed by the father-son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell and opened in 1957. The course has been changed significantly over the years. While the Bells’ routing remains, all greens, tees and bunkers were redesigned by Rees Jones in a 2001 major renovation with later refinements in 2019.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the South. Check out the maps of each hole below.
