Final Follow Up On Riviera's 10th: "Fun to watch. Tough to play."

I know, I know, you're in full Bear Trap mode. But before we move to four weeks of Florida golf, a few last things to consider about the much-discussed and dare I say beleaguered 10th at Riviera.

On Morning Drive we discussed the reaction from those who watched the CBS telecast and the criticisms of their announce team, and as I tried to explain, there was a combination of dry conditions, excessive green speed and the tacky changes by the Fazio design team to help Riviera not get a U.S. Open. The perfect storm exaggerated certain misfortunes. Sadly, the hole's reputation seems to have taken a bit of a hit, but don't blame George Thomas and Billy Bell.

In his weekly notes column, AP's Doug Ferguson tackled the question, quoted Ryo Ishikawa (see headline above) and talked to Riviera superintendent Matt Morton.

With all the chatter about so much sand from so many bunker shots building up the green, Morton said the real culprit was a long drought creating firm conditions.

"The main difference is three firm years in a row," he said. "During the Northern Trust Open, it's usually wet and you deal with rain. We're in a drought. You're seeing three years of dry, firm conditions. We've been able to showcase the hole the way members play in the summer."

It began to rain heavily on the back nine Sunday, and when Dustin Johnson and James Hahn reached the 10th hole in the playoff (the second extra hole), it helped slightly to be able to get their flop shots on the green. That said, they were flop shots of the highest quality.

They were indeed. Softer conditions helped, but some mighty young nerves also held up.To confirm that things were a tad silly for a 311-yard hole, here are the day-by-day scoring averages, hole locations and green-in-regulation percentages.

Thursday (back left): 4.201 47%
Friday (middle left): 4.007  60%
Saturday (middle front): 3.880  43%
Sunday (back left): 4.227  57%

All rounds: 4.087 52%

Note that the easiest of the hole locations on Saturday and the one most unprotected by bunkers but also most tempting to players, had the lowest green in regulation percentage.

Comments

[gov. lepetomane]

It was great that the playoff started with two of Riviera's best, hole no. 18 followed by hole no. 10. For me it made the conclusion of the tournament even more intriguing, more dramatic.

[Convert]

Stats tell story, something is wrong with a short little par 4 that only yields 52% GIR from the best players in the world. Players would have been happy to take 4 and skip the hole, bad set up.

[munihack]

Like I said in an earlier post the rain bailed out the playoff. In a drought condition especially the stats reveal this was a chosen outcome by the setup team. Since the USGA does this almost every year to some of their holes maybe the tour thought no one would notice. But the tour uses this course every year so even a bigger whiff by them. Maybe next year put the pin in a bunker- after all it will be the same for everyone.

[Lynn S.]

So due to drought the greens were rock hard. They have hoses, quick couplers, and some simple water would have balanced out conditions, no?
I agree with munihack. They pick some holes that will keep the scores high. If you compare hole positions on the Tour now to 20 years ago, you would see this. They mostly use edges now, seldom anything toward the middle. The 10th at Riviera wasn't designed to have hole positions on the edges. The green is only 2800 sq. ft.

[Pro from Dover]

"The 10th at Riviera wasn't designed to have hole positions on the edges. The green is only 2800 sq. ft." If that, Lynn S.

Bingo!

And rock-hard to boot as you said. Not a good combination, and the stats point that out w/ 52% of the best wedge players in the world able to hit this green?! Are you kidding me?

A wonderful golf hole turned into a mockery by the putting green.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Thursday (back left): 4.201 47%
Friday (middle left): 4.007 60%
Saturday (middle front): 3.880 43%
Sunday (back left): 4.227 57%

As always, don't be tempted to compare the Thursday/Friday numbers with the Saturday/Sunday numbers. The Thursday/Friday numbers include players who missed the cut. I wish the tour would release "Thursday/Friday (made cut)" numbers, to eliminate those playing poorly.

For example, Thursday's 4.201 and Sunday's 4.227 look pretty similar. But half of Thursday's scores were from players who ended up missing the cut. My guess is that Thursday's numbers from those who made the cut would be substantially lower than 4.2; maybe even down to 4.1.

And thus, we can conclude that Sunday's pin position was tougher than Thursday's.

[Sir Shanks Alot]

Boo hoo ! Professional golfers are complaining about one sorta difficult challenge in a round of 18 at Riviera. I got no sympathy for this. I say add a moat with crocodiles and one bunker that feeds the ball back into the fairway 75 yards away.

[Carl Peterson]

@MDV,

For round 2 and limited to players making the cut I get: 62.7% GIR and a stroke average of 3.95.
Unfortunately I don't have round 1 data.

I looked at rounds 3 and 4, partly as a check to make sure that my script was calculating the same numbers as above and I get:
Round 3: 57.3% GIR and 3.88 stroke average
Round 4: 42.7% GIR and 4.23 stroke average

Note that my numbers are different (transposed GIR%). I think mine make more sense i.e., higher GIR leading to lower stroke average so I'm inclined to think the transposition is on the part of TOUR media.

[Center Cut]

So the hole played roughly to par for four days. Since when was par meant to be easy? Sheesh, 90% of the courses on the tour get flambayed each weekend. Make all greens as tough as this, I say.