Like Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler has yet to answer Riviera’s question

A long list of great golfers have triumphed Riviera Country Club.

Hogan. Snead. Watson. Nelson. Mickelson. Couples. Excuse me. Els. Scott. The list goes on.

The George C. Thomas design is one of golf’s great cathedrals. It has hosted the US Opens and PGA Championships. Since 1973, he has played in the PGA Tour’s LA Open, now the Genesis Invitational. It’s a place where big players win. It’s a course where legends want to etch their name in history.

And it’s also a place where the best players of their generations – Jack, Tiger and Rory – have been unable to get over the line. You can blame him Poa annua lumpy greens or some inexplicable Riviera voodoo. But three golf legends have not found ultimate success in a country that, in theory, should play to their strengths. The course has a well-documented connection to Augusta National and requires players to control their spin and trajectory as they attack the small, tricky greens.

“It makes absolutely no sense,” Max Homa said in 2023, of Woods not being able to win at the Riviera. “It’s a second-shot golf course and he’s the best iron player of all time. It’s a no-brainer, really.”

“He’s a really good iron player and you have to be a good iron player to play well here,” Adam Scott said of Woods at the time. “This might just be an anomaly and maybe the only one in his entire career. It’s a little inexplicable.”

Woods has made 15 starts at the Riviera, including his PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur in 1992. He has made 10 cuts but only three top 10s, including a runner-up finish to Ernie Els in 1999. Woods has made it to a the matter of stars that do not align and the unpredictability of Poa greens.

“It’s disappointing in the sense that this is a golf course that has been very comfortable for me visually,” Woods said in 2024. “Like I said, it’s a fader pleasure off the tee and I, like I said, was a pretty good iron player, but for some reason I just didn’t put it together for another reason in this event.”

Nicklaus had two runner-up finishes at the Riviera but never won. McIlroy’s T2 Sunday was his best finish at Pacific Palisades.

While the sample size is still not as big as others, the haunted bigs of the Riviera club could add another member if things don’t change.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler arrived on the Riviera with a distinguished story of his own. He missed the cut at the 2017 US Amateur and missed the cut as an amateur at the Genesis Open in 2018. He entered the week with four top-20s as a pro at Riviera but had never finished within six shots of the lead. He arrived riding a streak of 18 consecutive top 10s (which has now ended).

Even after slow starts at the WM Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Scheffler made a run at the trophy before falling just short. That didn’t happen at Riv, where he opened with a three-over 74 and found himself walking to the cut line.

“I don’t know, this place and I have a weird relationship,” Scheffler said after holding a par on 18 Friday to make the cut. “I feel like I can play so well here and I just haven’t done it yet.”

Scheffler made a bold charge up the leaderboard at the weekend – he said he took advantage of early times and less chewed greens – but finished in a tie for 12th at a venue that has confounded the game’s greats.

Like Woods and McIlroy, Scheffler had no explanation for why the Riviera — a ball-striker’s course — isn’t tied to him. He faced tough conditions on Thursday and took advantage of the start of the weekend to move up the leaderboard. In his Riviera career, Scheffler has had good weeks off the course and around the green. His placing has been average, but he has only once finished in the top 10 at the close, which came in 2022 when he tied for 7th. Last week, he ranked 36th in Strokes Gained: Approach, losing .739 strokes per round.

“When you look at this golf course and you look at it on paper, it looks kind of easy,” Scheffler said before the tournament. “Then you start playing it, and you’re like, you hit a ball into the fairway on 2 and you’re like, Man, this hole is kind of tough. Then you miss the fairway on 3 and you’re like, Oh, shoot, I don’t know how I’m going to hit the green here, and then the golf course just eats away at you over time.”

As Scheffler’s reign over professional golf has grown, he has consistently found his name in the same sentence as Woods. History repeated itself at Riviera as Scheffler, like Woods, looked for ways to solve the famous Southern California course. Even on a day when he posted a low number, the responses hinted at it.

“Maybe a little bit,” Scheffler said after his third-round 66 when asked if he felt better about the course. “But then, sometimes it still felt weird.”

On Sunday evening, Woods, the tournament host, waved goodbye winner Jacob Bridgeman on the hill. The 15-time major winner joked that Bridgeman, who beat McIlroy by one, now had something Woods doesn’t.

The answer to a puzzle that Woods, McIlroy and now Scheffler are still trying to solve.

“>