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just wanted to let all you know that i was fortunate enough to work at riviera for a year during my LA days. i was a marshall and was in charge of keeping play steady. my first day i managed to let there be a 4 group back-up on #9 tee. i went home that evening and left a message for the head pro that i was quitting.

i slept on it and showed up the next day. thak god i did. i got the hang of it and got to practice and play there. we only got to play once a month though.

Wow, johnny; great experience (except for maybe the backup part). I like to watch the LA Open just to see the course. I think it's a classic design and I like studying the holes. I'm still not sure what I think of the 6th green (the one that has a bunker in it). It's kind of controversial, but one knowledgeable guy I know of thinks it was a bold design move on the architect's part. It is fun to watch the pro's deal with it (chip over it or putt around it).

great mention of #6.

it does come across as kind of carnival-like for such a classic design but it is fun to watch. i used to camp out between 5 and 6 and i saw plenty of the average joe's there play the hole. nobody chipped it! i'm assuming because they are memebers and didnt want to screw up the greens that paul ramina had worked so hard to get rolling good again.

I know I'd be afraid to take my wedge to that putting surface! Another reason that I like the course is that it was designed by the same person (George C. Thomas) who designed Whitemarsh CC in the Philly area. In the 1960's I used to go there and watch the pro's when they came in for the Whitemarsh Open. Really nice parkland-style course. Which the pro's destroyed. Winning score was usually like 18 under par. I was so impressed that some guys could reach the par 5's in only 2 shots!!! (I was a kid.)

lol....i hear you. i'm amazed how much the distance players hit the ball has cost riviera a US open. they even renovated several holes to make it longer but it wasnt enough for the usga. torrey pines got it which is still sweet but i would love to see riviera get one. the other problem riviera has is that is squeezed into a small area and isnt condusive to large crowds.

Back in '79, I was stationed at an Air Force Base in Riverside CA for 30 days - think of the Air Force's version of 'Top Gun' (no I wasn't a pilot, just part of the logistics crew). Since Uncle Sam had flown me in, I had to rent a car and to save money I rented a 'rent a wreck' 1963 Rambler with no seat covers for transportation that month and threw a towel on the seat so I didn't sit on the springs Was on my way one day to Camarillo to visit a friend and drove a round a bit down Sunset Blvd and drove by the Riveria CC entrance. My memory isn't real clear on how I did this since it was 25 years ago, but I found a back street that dead ended to the fence line of the club - had my bags in the trunk, pulled them out, saw no one on the course and started to climb over the fence to sneak in a few holes. Then I thought the better of it and stopped myself- something told me maybe, just maybe, that it might not be a good idea to get caught for tresspassing, getting thrown in the slammer for a couple of days, then be guilty of AWOL (the fear of the AWOL thing stopped many a good times!) That's the closet I came to playing there! Man it was funny driving down Sunset in a 'classic' '63 Rambler driving up to stop lights next to all the Mercedes!! The other thing I was trying to find at the time was Hef's mansion, but never did figure out exactly where it was - I'm pretty sure it's not far from the course.

cool story man! yuo are right about the street that dead ends there. it runs up to the back of #11. a par five.

i was there in 2000 and the DNC was in LA that summer. the day before the convention started they had a golf outing for the democrats. this was pre 9/11 but i'll be * if it wasnt the most secure place ive ever seen that night. i was closing and had to go collect all the flags. it was eerie because there were secret sevice and FBI agents on the course scoping it out. that entrance you are speaking of was concern for the govt.

So it was No. 11 - for 25 years I've wondered what hole it was - had no idea. Maybe this has changed, but if my memory serves me right, I remember that I thot it was strange because it seemed like an 'only' a slightly above a middle-class neigborhood where that street was - I expected HUGE homes. I know at the time I never could have afforded the front dorknob on those homes, (probably still can't!) but I distinctly remember not feeling too out of place because it wasn't a bunch of mansions or anything close to one. I know from the blimp shots on TV that some of the course has some mansions that border the course, albeit it seems that they are well back from the property itself.

you are right, greenguy. the road ( i wish i rememebred the street name) is a middle income street.

there are areas around the club that have multi-million dolla rhomes but not in that section.

albert brooks has a home that overlooks #12.

Probably drove by his house - I also got on a street that those types of 'houses' were on and remember seeing things like tricycles and stuff that very young kids would have in the driveways. I was thinking that the people living in there couldn't have been much older than me - I was 21 at the time - and wondered how in the heck people that were probably only in their late 20's could live like that. I assumed that some of those homes were owned by a bunch of famous, young actors or older big shot movie executives that had moved on from their first marriage and were working on the 2nd (3rd?) young trophy wife thing, hence young kids stuff in the yard with 50 year old dads and 25 year old moms. Even now if I happen to to be in a rich section of town anywhere in this great country, I notice things like young kids stuff in the yards and realize my life pretty much stinks At least financially!

To cure this feeling, drive into the "inner city" neighborhoods in any big city or drive through some of the seemier trailer parks in the suburbs. If you survive the experience, you'll feel pretty good about your finances.

After all the money I've lost in the market the last few years, I might not just be driving thru where some of the less well-off live, I might just have to call them 'neighbor'! I'm a lot closer to them money wise than I am to those people that live in some of those mansions I saw, so I'd probably feel right at home. In all seriousness, I never am jealous of seeing other people making more money than me - I just wonder how they did it, that's all. Wouldn't trade places with anybody and I know that I am fortunate to have a steady income that more than meets our needs. But I also know I've busted my tail end off to get where I am, so while I think I am fortunate and lucky to have many of the things I have (health, great marriage and family, maybe not rich, but by no means poor either, etc.), I also know the reason I have some of these things in life is mainly because I've worked for it the old fashioned way - I've earned it!