Riviera Country Club

Overview: Riviera Country Club occupies a canyon site in Pacific Palisades where George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell used the natural landform to create a strategic parkland course. The 18-hole layout is listed at par 71 and 7,322 yards, with the canyon walls, eucalyptus and sycamores shaping both the visual setting and the lines of play. Angled fairways, distinctive green shapes and changing elevation give the routing a strong sense of movement, while the short fourth and tenth holes show how much strategy can be packed into modest distances.

History: The Los Angeles Athletic Club founded Riviera in 1926, and the golf course opened in 1927 after Thomas developed the design through 18 months and 15 iterations. The Spanish Revival clubhouse followed in 1928. The original routing has been refined rather than discarded: the GCSAA records a 1992 restoration by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, along with later work by Tom Fazio. Riviera’s tournament history includes the 1948 U.S. Open, the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships, the 1998 U.S. Senior Open and the 2017 U.S. Amateur.

Did You Know? Riviera was not built only as a golf venue. Its riding ground hosted equestrian events during the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, including the show-jumping competition and the riding portion of the modern pentathlon. That earlier use explains why the club’s history includes horses and polo alongside the golf course, before the former polo area became the Riviera Tennis Club.