The Riviera Country Club is known for being a highly sought-after course, and why wouldn’t it be? Situated in the heart of the beautiful Pacific Palisades, it’s lined with spectacular houses, boasts a great clubhouse and features a course that is second to none. The famous course is renowned for many things, such as being the host for The Genesis Invitational, but it is also home to what may be one of the trickiest holes in all of the PGA Tour.
The 10th hole defines what professional golf is all about. At first glance, it seems simple. The golfer walks up to the tee and sees a perfectly maintained fairway, green and rough, which appears to offer a fresh start to the back nine. A par-4 hole of only 315 yards, seemingly light work for someone on the PGA Tour. On the contrary, the 10th hole puts someone’s golfing knowledge and capability to the test like no other hole at the club does.
This is the part of the course where the mental game comes into play. The fairway is littered with hills and a large sand trap right in the middle. The fairway then leads into a slight slope up to a firm green, which is also surrounded by bunkers. Some players take the approach of trying to drive onto the green, but a bad swing can be disastrous, as it is very easy to land either in the rough or in an unfavorable position.
And that’s only getting onto the green. Once the ball is close to the pin, it’s one of the most confusing putts a player will face. Despite the challenge, some golfers embrace it for being one of the most unique holes on the tour.
“It’s just a great hole because the green complex is off the charts. It’s important to get a good tee shot there because if you’re in the wrong position, you’re chipping sideways to the middle of the green,” Jason Day said. “When you have that massive variance of shots over a really small hole, that’s what’s so unique and great about that hole.”
The pros go into the tournament expecting a tough matchup here, and, in the final round on Sunday, golfers either figured out its complexities, or crashed and burned. The crowd surrounding the hole was in for a show, as they saw players struggle to figure out how to attack it. All day, cheers or sorrows rang across the grass from the back of the course over someone’s miraculous birdie, or disappointing pars and bogeys.
Not only that, but arguably the most important birdie of the entire tournament happened on the 10th hole. Genesis Invitational winner Hideki Matsuyama started his back-nine hot streak on this exact hole. Matsuyama played one of the best rounds in tournament history, achieving a final-round record score of 62, and his wave of momentum started with his birdie at the 10th.
Originally Matsuyama ball was behind the pin and he seemed destined for a bogey. But after a few days of learning how the ball breaks on the green he was able to navigate the ball into the hole. This momentum-building shot led to five more birdies in the back half of the court. If he hadn’t made that happen, things could have been very different. Momentum would not have been as strong, and confidence could have been weakened.
On the other side of things, the 10th hole is where things went downhill for Luke List, who couldn’t seem to work out the kinks here. After a stellar front nine to put him in first place, the rest of the round went downhill when he approached the most difficult hole on the course. List’s tee off went wrong, going far right into the rough. Then it was left up to his putting. However, he failed to learn from previous rounds, leading to a bogey-filled second half and losing the tournament victory.
“The cardinal sin on 10 is missing right, and I did that yesterday and unfortunately did that again today,” List said. “That bogey really kind of stung a little bit. Unfortunately, I left myself in some bad positions.”
Two other stars who underperformed at this crucial hole were Will Zalatoris and Patrick Cantlay. Zalatoris, who finished the event tied for second, started off with an unfavorable tee shot, landing in the rough, albeit close to the green. After a phenomenal chip, he seemed destined to conquer the difficult hole with a birdie. Unfortunately for Zalatoris, a misread on the speed of the green cost him a pivotal birdie.
As for Cantlay, who finished tied for fourth, he simply couldn’t find his way around the hole. He started off his first two shots going bunker to bunker, with neither chip out ending up promising. Derailing his momentum, it started a string of three bogeys on the back nine.
It wasn’t all hardships and defeats, though. In fact, many of the top players were able to figure out their perfect strategy to tackle this hole. Several golfers were still able to secure birdies, including top-10 finisher Xander Schauffele.
“You [have to] hit a really good shot off the tee. If you have the right club to hit it, sort of like just over that left bunker, you can open up the hole,” Schauffele said. “If it doesn’t have enough spin and if you hit it in the wrong spot, [you have to] try to execute your shot. So I think reasons like that make it a fun hole.”
One of the most entertaining holes in all of golf saw another historic day of action. After the week at the Genesis Invitational, it retains its legacy as one of the most difficult, yet fun holes to watch on the PGA Tour.