The Riviera Riddle: Why Golf’s Greatest Players Keep Coming Up Short

I’ve been covering professional golf for 35 years, and in that time I’ve learned that courses have personalities. Some venues seem to reward pure talent. Others—the really interesting ones—demand something more elusive: a specific golf IQ, a particular shot-making philosophy, or sometimes just plain luck.

Riviera Country Club, that jewel sitting in Pacific Palisades overlooking the Pacific, is absolutely one of those enigmatic layouts. And this week’s Genesis Invitational—the 100th running of what started as the Los Angeles Open—presents us with one of golf’s most fascinating mysteries: why the game’s absolute greatest players have consistently failed to win there.

The Impossible Stat That Keeps Me Up at Night

Here’s what should trouble every golf analyst: Jack Nicklaus never won at Riviera. Tiger Woods never won at Riviera. And right now, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy appear to be heading down the exact same path.

Think about that for a moment. We’re talking about four players who represent the pinnacle of competitive golf across multiple generations. Nicklaus and Woods are quite possibly the two greatest golfers who ever lived. Scheffler is currently playing at a level that makes legitimate people wonder if he might surpass them both. McIlroy remains one of the most complete players on tour. Yet this one course—a beautiful, challenging but hardly impenetrable layout—has completely stymied them.

What strikes me most is that Nicklaus actually made his professional debut at Riviera in 1962, earning all of $33. Tiger showed up at age 16 as an amateur in 1992. These weren’t strangers walking into unfamiliar terrain. Both played Riviera multiple times across their careers. Nicklaus had 14 starts there (12 Genesis Invitational attempts plus two PGA Championships). Woods has tried 16 times and counting. The course should have cracked eventually. But it didn’t.

The Left-Handed Mystery Nobody’s Quite Solved

Having caddied for Tom Lehman back in the ’90s, I learned to pay attention when patterns emerge. And there’s an undeniable pattern here.

Look at the winners: Bubba Watson has three victories at Riviera. Phil Mickelson has two. Mike Weir won twice. What do they share? They’re all left-handed. Even more intriguingly, Mickelson and Watson have become multiple Masters champions—a course that, like Riviera, demands precision, creativity, and the ability to work the ball in both directions. Weir won the Masters as well.

The theory about why lefties might have an advantage here is compelling: the course layout and green complexes seem to reward a natural fade or left-to-right ball flight. For a left-hander, that’s an advantage built into their natural swing mechanics. Righties like Nicklaus and Woods had to manufacture it.

Yet here’s where it gets interesting—and slightly humbling for those of us who think we understand this game. Both Nicklaus and Woods absolutely could manufacture that fade. They did it brilliantly at dozens of other courses. So why not here?

What Makes Riviera Different

According to Jordan Spieth, who loves the course despite winning only once there in 12 attempts:

“It just requires all parts of the game and a variety of ball-striking. And then once you’re on the greens, you’ve got to have great speed control. It’s an all-around fantastic golf course that you don’t get away with poor shots at all.”

Spieth went even deeper in his analysis, drawing a direct comparison to Augusta National:

“It’s one of those rare weeks where you just can’t get away with firing at flag sticks. Precision is so key, but being smart and recognising when even being precise still won’t work out. There’s not much rough, but it does take the spin off enough so you can’t get into pins.”

In my experience, that Augusta comparison is the real key here. Riviera demands a mindset that elite golfers—the ones used to dominating—sometimes struggle with. It’s not about how hard you can hit it or how perfectly you can execute a specific shot. It’s about knowing when NOT to go for something, understanding the geometry of approach angles, and respecting the quirky Poa Annua greens that don’t forgive carelessness.

The course favors longer hitters slightly, which helped Watson and Holmes. But it absolutely punishes aggression. You need to be aggressive AND patient simultaneously—a difficult cocktail.

Where We Stand Today

Scheffler’s situation is particularly striking. The man who has won multiple majors and dominated the PGA Tour has never finished better than seventh at Riviera. More tellingly, he’s never even been within eight shots of the 54-hole lead, meaning he’s never genuinely contended.

McIlroy has done marginally better—a fourth-place finish in 2019 and fifth in 2020 when he was the co-leader after 54 holes. But even those efforts represent underperformance relative to his talent level. In eight tries, he’s only gotten close twice.

What intrigues me most is whether these modern stars will eventually crack the code, or whether Riviera has found a way to be the eternal equalizer—the one course where being the best player in the world simply isn’t enough.

The Genesis Invitational begins this week. My money says we’ll see another winner emerge from outside that elite tier. Riviera has earned its mystery, and mysteries, I’ve learned, are rarely solved quickly in professional golf.