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A final week of the West Coast Swing before the PGA Tour re-locates to Florida and that also means a last event on Poa Annua grass. The test at Riviera Country Club, Los Angeles is a little different to Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines, however, in the sense that it is not right on the coast, being a mile or so inland and therefore a little more sheltered. But it definitely is another major championship level test (most recently the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships) - and plays more like it than Pebble or Torrey. It’s also a very traditional test, first used for this event in 1929, and it introduces something of a new element from recent weeks in the form of Kikuyu for approach shots. Like last week at Pebble Beach, however, the greens are small. Scoring tends to be difficult, befitting the status of the course and tournament. Tiger Woods says of Riviera: “There’s no faking it around this golf course. It puts such a premium on getting the golf ball in play and hitting the ball high. “You’ve got to hit the ball high into any of these greens and really control your spin and put the ball in the right spots because getting up and down here, as we’ve all seen, kikuyu grass is not easy to do." It’s also interesting what defending champion Adam Scott adds: “I think it’s no secret the least putts are made here on Tour all year. The greens are quite severe. “It’s an old traditional style golf course with severe greens, and then you get them at speeds 12 and a half this morning, last year they were very, very quick.” Angles to consider 1/ Course form Each of the last five winners had proved himself on the course before and to really quite an extent – they’d all finished top three in previous appearances. 2/ Strokes Gained Off the Tee This column noted last year that the previous four winners had all shown very good form off the tee in the run up to their win and Adam Scott continued the trend. So that’s now five winners who had ranked T11th or better for SG Off the Tee in one of their two starts before getting to L.A. 3/ Greens in Regulation stats Of those last five winners, Scott and Dustin Johnson (2017) ranked first for finding the putting surfaces, JB Holmes (2019) was second, and Bubba Watson seventh and eighth when winning in 2018 and 2016.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Dustin Johnson He ranked 11th in the field for hitting the greens, and was third for SG Off the Tee in his last start, when winning in Saudi Arabia. That win was a fourth in eight starts. He’s made 13 starts in the tournament, landing nine top ten finishes, three of them seconds and that victory in 2017. He’s in superb form, looks hungry, but also in a great head space. Sergio Garcia The Spaniard ranks 22nd in the field for GIR in the last year and after winning at the end of last year has started 2021 nicely enough. He was T11th at the Tournament of Champions, played nicely after a sluggish start at the Sony Open, and then added sixth and T12th on the European Tour’s Desert Swing. His high-ball flight has helped him make 11 cuts in his 13 course appearances. Was superb from the tee in Dubai and Saudi, rankings first and second. Doug Ghim Doc Redman defeated Doug Ghim in the final of the 2017 US Amateur on this course, both have good GIR numbers and both played nicely on Poa Annua in last Fall’s Safeway Open at Silverado, so why one over the other? Ultimately, form. Redman has missed his last two cuts and not made a top 60 in five starts. Ghim was fifth in The American Express, made the cut at Torrey Pines and ranked ninth Off the Tee last week when T21st. The price below pays if he makes the top ten.
Tips: 0-3; -6.00pts 2.5pt win only Dustin Johnson at 6/1 (William Hill, Sporting Index, SBK) 7th 1pt e.w. Sergio Garcia at 66/1 (Skybet, William Hill, PaddyPower, BF Sportsbook 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) mc 0.75pt e.w. Doug Ghim at 125/1 (Boylesport 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) mc
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