A Riviera Review

HDTV may have raised the bar considerably when it comes to experiencing sporting events from your living room, but nothing compares to going to a sporting event in person. Golf, in particular, is so well packaged on television that attending a tournament in person is quite unlike watching the same event on TV. If you enjoy golf at all, making the effort to go to a professional tournament in person is well worth the time and expense. (Warning: this is long, so you should probably tune out now, Chris.)

We had the opportunity to spend the day at the Riviera Country Club watching the PGA Tour's Nissan Open. In 80-something degree weather, we experienced much of what a golf tournament has to offer. Amidst the fragrant eucalyptus groves, we saw wiley veterans execute deft chips, young guns crush fairway bombs, superstars remind us why they are, and unknowns show us why they deserve to be on the Tour. We joined huge crowds that reduced our vision to a mere sliver of the action, stood nearly alone only seconds later simply by switching holes, heard the distant roar that told of a hole-in-one, and helped create roars of our own with several thousand other viewers in the natural amphitheater of the 18th green.

Among the highlights: we started our day in the middle of the first fairway, and followed the second group we saw (which included PGA winner Steve Elkington and British Open winner Ben Curtis) to the green. We found an open spot along the rope behind the green away from the pin. Serendipitously, however, it seemed that any player who missed the green long sent their ball right at us. In very short order, we made way for Corey Pavin, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington, all of whom were forced to make difficult chips out of an uneven, tamped-down lie, over a rise to a hole tucked just on the other side of the hillock on a very fast green. Pavin made a brilliant, full swing flop shot, Harrington had a middling effort, and Garcia fluffed his first attempt, failing to get it out of the rough (he parred the whole anyway, though). For each of these events, we were within six feet of the player at times.

After the final group played through, we explored the course a bit. As soon as the huge crowd that followed the leading Phil Mickelson dispersed, we found ourselves moments later nearly alone at the 11th green watching two relative unknowns putt out. On our way to the back end of the course, we paused to watch Jeff Quinney, a Tour rookie who has been in contention for the Sunday lead in three tournaments already this year, absolutely crush a fairway wood to reach the 11th green, a par five, in two shots. The casual grace with which Quinney and one of his playing partners executed this terribly difficult shot is a clear indication at how skilled these guys are. If the ball ever comes off of any of my clubs with the kind of power and sound that these players generate, I'll quit my job and take up golf full time.

We spent a few minutes in the small grandstand at the par three 14th hole, long enough to watch Mike Weir clear the green, toss aside a television microphone embedded in the green, make a nice chip onto the putting surface, then two-putt for a disappointing bogey. On our way once again, we stopped along an adjacent fairway just in time to see Jim Furyk and Ernie Els, whom we had seen a little while earlier at the first hole, play masterful iron shots into the seventh green. On we went to the par three 6th hole at the very end of the property, with its unique bunkered green. We arrived two groups ahead of Mickelson's threesome. We watched the players hit over our heads, then juked and dived for a view of the green as the players finished the hole.

We proceeded away from the huge gallery following Phil, hiking nearly alone up the hill along the 5th hole, stopping under a tree by ourselves to watch a couple of groups hit their approach shots down the hill to the 5th green. Then we continued up the hill to park ourselves for a while at the famous par three 4th hole. At this point, only the players who were well down the leader board were playing the low-numbered holes, because they had all started their day on the 10th hole, and were now into their last nine holes of the day. Nevertheless, we had excellent green-side seats on the grass near the hole to watch several groups come through. We had the opportunity to see how creative professional golfers can be. The 4th hole is a long par three guarded by a fearsome bunker in front. Most of the shots we saw trickled off the back into a collection area. From that location, we saw players hit high flops, low pitches, running chips, putts with drivers, and conventional putts. Amazingly, no one method was any less successful than any other.

Finally, we grabbed some lunch and followed Vijay Singh up the 18th fairway to the bowl-like 18th green, where we parked ourselves and watched the leading six groups finish their day. There I saw more evidence that these guys are not like you and I. A relatively unknown player, John Rollins, had pushed his drive into a grove of eucalyptus trees, which blocked his route to the green both laterally and vertically. His only direct play was right at us on the hillside, which would do little to improve his score. While the player in me conceded and prepared for some sort of short sideways play, Rollins hit the perfect shot: a controlled slice that never rose more than twenty feet above the ground, touched down on the apron in front of the green and rolled to a stop two feet from the hole after missing the pin by about an inch. All of this from 200 yards away. Incredible.

The opportunity to get close to the action in unexpected places is a key feature of a golf tournament experience. Television does not show you how close the various holes are to each other, that just beyond the huge gallery watching the featured player is a completely open greenside where another supremely talented golfer plies his trade in near anonymity, that the bunkers are truly frightening (if you are a casual golfer, you have never seen anything like these man-eaters), that the players engage in easy banter with each other and the crowd. For those who do not enjoy golf in any form, attending a tournament will not likely cause a change of heart. But for those who enjoy the game, watching a tournament in person is fun and illuminating.

And as always with golf, even on its worst day, if nothing else it is still a walk in a beautiful park.