News
The Northern Trust Open preview
By Pete Pappas
GolfWRX Staff Writer
The PGA Tour spotlight shifts this week to magnificent Riviera Country Club, home of the venerable “Hogan’s Alley”, and host to the Northern Trust Open in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Australian Aaron Baddeley attempts to defend his Northern Trust Open title against a 144-player field including world No. 1 Luke Donald (failed to make the cut last year), 2011 runner-up Vijay Singh (34 career PGA Tour wins), 52-year old Fred Couples (making his 30th appearance at Riviera), and last week’s champion in spectacular fashion at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson (won this event in 2008 and 2009).
THE WEE ICE MAN
This year also marks the centennial anniversary of Ben Hogan’s birthday, arguably the greatest ball-striker to ever play the game, and whose three victories here in a span of 18 months between 1947 and 1948 led three-time Masters champion Jimmy Demaret to nickname Riviera, “Hogan’s Alley”.
BACK-TO-BACK
Baddeley’s final round 69 last year was good enough to hold off Singh by two strokes, and Kevin Na by three strokes, earning “Badds” his third career PGA Tour win.
His strong finish (five-under 67) last Sunday at Pebble gives him the confidence and momentum heading into Thursday that he’ll need if he’s going to join Hogan, Mickelson, and Arnold Palmer as back-to-back winners of this event.
BOOM BOOM
Couples looked like the “Boom Boom” of old to start last year’s final round, opening with three consecutive birdies, temporarily ripping the lead away from Baddeley. But victimized by shaky play down the stretch, Couples struggled to a 2-over Sunday finish, with bogeys at No. 16 and world-famous No. 18, dropping him to a disappointing tie for seventh place.
Couples is a two-time winner of this event (in 1990 and 1992 when it was known as the Los Angeles Open), and has 14 career top-10 finishes at Riviera. At first blush he would seem an obvious choice to contend again. But nagging health issues, including recent blood spinning treatments for his chronic back pain, bring his ability to literally just walk the course without pain for four rounds into question.
I PLAY TO WIN
Tiger Woods is not in the field to motivate Mickelson. And skeptics are pointing out similarities to Mickelson’s season last year when he went one and done after his lone victory in 2011 (Shell Houston Open).
But his performance at Pebble last Sunday was far more impressive than his performance in Houston last year. Surgical with his putter (making three putts in clutch situations over 20 feet), and a fairway-finding machine (hitting 13 of 14 fairways en route to a bogey-free final round), Mickelson was the paradigm of Pebble perfection.
“I play to win. I’m going for it,” Mickelson said Wednesday. And as quite possibly the streakiest boom-or-bust player on the PGA Tour, don’t be surprised to see the 41-year old catch wildfire again at some point this weekend, and notch his 41st career tour win this Sunday.
Additional Notes:
Coverage begins Thursday at 12:00 pm PST on Golf Channel.
The Northern Trust Open winner will earn $1.118 million and 500 FedExCup points.
Hogan (64 career wins), Byron Nelson (54 career wins), and Sam Snead (82 career wins), were all born in 1912.
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Tour Photo Galleries
Photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
GolfWRX is on site this week at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island for the RBC Heritage. Plenty of golfers who competed in the Masters last week will be making the quick turnaround in the Lowcountry of South Carolina as the Heritage is again one of the Tour’s Signature Events.
We have general albums for you to check out, as well as plenty of WITBs — including Justin Thomas and Justin Rose.
We’ll continue to update as more photos flow in from SC.
Check out links to all our photos, below.
General Albums
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Monday #2
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #1
- 2024 RBC Heritage – Tuesday #2
WITB Albums
- Justin Thomas – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Rose – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Chandler Phillips – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Nick Dunlap – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Thomas Detry – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Austin Eckroat – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Jason Day – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Will Zalatoris – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Patrick Cantlay – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Ludvig Aberg – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Collin Morikawa – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Sam Burns – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Stephen Jaeger – WITB – 2024 RBC Heritage
Pullout Albums
- Wyndham Clark’s Odyssey putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- JT’s new Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Justin Thomas testing new Titleist 2 wood – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey putter with triple track alignment aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Scotty Cameron The Blk Box putting alignment aid/training aid – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Cameron putter – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Odyssey Ai One Eleven T putters – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Christian Bezuidenhout – testing new Callaway Ti 340 mini driver – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Xander Schauffele testing the Callaway Ti 340 mini driver & the DUW – 2024 RBC Heritage
- Byeong Hun An, two new L.A.B. Golf putter builds with “T” alignment – 2024 RBC Heritage
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
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