Riviera (2/23/09)

I have not studied the layout at Riviera in great detail, but I did watch a fair amount of this week's tournament there. It looks like a great course, with some holes calling for power, and some calling for precision. The areas around the greens were challenging, but they also called for creativity, and the players usually had several options open for getting the ball close to the pin (Andres Romero's pitch-and-run up the hill from the valley of death on 8 was sick). But here's my initial reaction, and one which was hard to get past: Why do the fairways have to look like friggin' landing strips? A bit of contouring here and there would force the players to be even more strategic, and it would make the course fit in much better visually. I half expected some groups to have to delay teeing off on one becuase the latest shipment from Tijuana was just arriving.