A Sunday At Riv

The Riviera Country Club is truly one of the most pure places in all of professional golf. Walking in you are met with a clubhouse so elegant and classy, that even Pine Valley members would be jealous. Fairways where all you have to do is look up to see some of the most expensive real estate in the world. It's easy to see why it was in Golf Digests top 20 courses in 2025. Being on property on a Sunday is something you can only feel by being there. Clamoring patrons always looking around to see if they will catch a glimpse of Tiger. Living in Southern California, Riv and LA CC are the pinnacle, the top of the mountain. Courses that represent everything golf purists love. Traditional layouts with gettable par 4s, and holes that require the best ball strikers in the world to be creative. I am going to take you through my day on championship Sunday.

As we entered onto property, you are greeted by the fairway on number one, about a 290 yard run out before it turns to thick almost unplayable rough. We heard two balls land as Hideki and Homa both were teeing off from the elevated tee box above. as we walked up the fairway we wrapped around into the area around the chipping green, where all the sponsors had set up shop. We looked inside the Genesis merch store, although if you have never been to a PGA event before, I highly recommend waiting for the actual Proshop. There was everything from trading card vendors to every time share west of the Mississippi trying to sell me Cancun. We then made the walk up the hill to the putting green, where we were met with Ted Scott and Tom Kim.

As you enter into the proshop you are met with beautiful merch stick with there signature RIV lettering. We ended up walking out with a driver head cover with the coolest flannel on inside as well as a Riviera Country Club hat. As we walked out a large crowd had gathered on one to watch Ludvig and Tony rip balls down broadway. As a side note, every time I am at a tour event and watch Finua hit 2 iron, it amazes me more and more. Its's 250-260 with a tight little cut and the sound will take your breath away. We began making our way down the hill to grab a couple transfusions. We now were in the spot to follow the path down 3 (although they have you walk down 18) and follow one of my favorite players in Sahith Theegala. As we got to hole six, the beautiful par 3 with multi tiers of green and a island bunker right in the middle, some people whose house sits above the green were walking out on their platform (I would call it a deck but it was legit a platform area) to watch. Theegala stuck it right in the bunker and this was the first moment we got to see some creativity. We also decided to sit on the par three and wait for Tony and Ludvig. We then followed them until the turn.

As we grabbed some food, it was time to go see the main event for the day (at least for me). Two of the best bal strikers to ever play in the game in Adam Scott and Tommy Fleetwood are paired together. We followed them for around 7 holes and it was extremely special. Adam was determined to take sole possession of second, and he did so for a while, shooting another 63. Fleetwood has to be the nicest guy in all of golf, always giving high fives to his fans and having a smile on his face. When he holed out from 173 yards we were right on the ropes and it was easily my favorite part of the day.

As we watched them finish 18 we began the walk back to the buses that would take us back to the Santa Monica parking structure. We usually will still for the final group, but Riv on 18 is pretty congested, and you may wait hours to catch a bus back when that many people are leaving at once. Seems like Rory made it close. Congrats to Jacob Bridgeman on the huge win. Enjoy some more photos I took below! Maybe one day I will get to play this track. Sound off in the comments if you were there this past weekend or if you have gotten to play Riv.