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PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA | Gaze long enough at the big sycamore to the left of Riviera Country Club’s 12th green and it’s not difficult to imagine Humphrey Bogart standing there, watching golf as he did years ago.
Wander through the clubhouse where photographs and artifacts keep alive days gone by and they’re all there, from Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (they filmed Pat and Mike at Riviera) to Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods.
And if you could get an invitation, Mel Brooks and Larry David are among the people whose homes border Riviera, which hosts the Genesis Invitational this week.
The magic of the place is the golf course, laid across a virtually flat piece of land not far from Sunset Boulevard. Designed by George Thomas and William Bell, Riviera opened for play in 1927 and nearly a century later, it remains unconquered by the modern technology that has rendered other Golden Age designs antiquated.
Through the years, Riviera has evolved as golf courses do, getting stretched here and tugged there, but it remains essentially the same layout it has always been. The bunkers, the most eye-catching feature of Riviera, are deeper than Thomas designed them and at 7,322 yards this week, it’s a longer course than it used to be.
It is not extraordinarily long by modern standards, the rough is noticeable but not severe and its greens are on the smallish size but not miniscule. In an age when aggressive golf feels like a way of life on the PGA Tour, the scoring record for what was originally called the Los Angeles Open hasn’t changed since Lanny Wadkins shot 20-under par here 35 years ago.
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