Timeless Riviera Still Holds Up

The 12th green at Riviera Country Club. Photo: JD Cuban, Copyright USGA

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 seeing 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 othe...