Buckle up: Riviera’s prized course might have just created its most talked-about flaw. Ben Hogan once hailed Riviera’s fourth as “The greatest par-3 hole in America.” Today, it holds a different claim—it's the longest par-3 on the PGA Tour.
Riviera Country Club lengthened the famous fourth hole, originally designed by George Thomas as a Redan-inspired short par-3, by about 37 yards. The distance now sits at 273 yards, edging past Puntacana Resort’s 265-yard 11th as the Tour’s longest regular-ending par-3. Only Cherry Hills’ 8th hole (276 yards during the 2014 BMW Championship) has surpassed it in recent major stops since 2003.
A classic Redan demands a longer club to a green set at a 45-degree angle with a slope from front to back. You typically find a front bunker, a more punishing back bunker, and a bold ground slope that nudges balls toward the center and rear locations of the green.
The Riviera update wasn’t only about adding length. The tee box was moved roughly 30 yards to the right to free space for a new tee on No. 18, effectively eroding much of the traditional Redan angle. Greenside tweaks were also made to encourage more ground play, though Rico Hoey (a Riviera member during his USC days) notes that kikuyu rough and the soft conditions around the green—especially this week—still hamper the plan to channel balls along the ground in true Redan fashion.
“I doubt it changes much,” said Jordan Spieth, who starred for Texas at Riviera in the 2012 NCAA title and has logged two top-10s on tour here. “Instead of a 2-iron or hybrid, you’re probably pulling a 3-wood. It was always a bit of a crapshoot whether you’d actually hit the green. It’s, in my view, the course’s only weak spot—only at this time of year. When we played the national championship (late May), you could land a 4-iron on the right and it might funnel back there.”
Two years ago, when Riviera hosted the Genesis for the first time since 2000, No. 4 finished 0.204 strokes over par for the week, ranking as the third-hardest hole of the event. It produced only 11 birdies, while pros hit the green a mere 15% of the time, combining for a 49-over score. Curiously, there were no doubles recorded.
What makes the hole so daunting is the combination of Tour-grade greens that are both fast and firm, plus a tee shot that must land and stay put on a green that tends to spit shots off-line.
“If you want it to be a 275-yard par-3, you have to redesign the apron leading onto the green,” Rory McIlroy observed. “It can’t be kikuyu anymore; you’d need a different grass that helps a ball run to the green, because in the right conditions, a 3-iron lofted onto the surface could finish up well behind the fifth tee.”
This week, even as players thumped long clubs into a wind-lashed air (Hoey even used a mini-driver into the wind late Tuesday with the hole hovering around 270), rain softened the approach and offered a glimmer of hope that carries might hold. Yet that potential advantage doesn’t erase the core challenge; it merely tempers it.
“Too long,” Nico Echavarria remarked. “It’s simply unnecessary to have a par-3 this lengthy.”
Above all, McIlroy was blunt: “I actually think it’s a horrible change.”
And this is where the dialogue gets spicy: does stretching a par-3 to near 270–275 yards elevate a course’s drama and test, or does it dilute the very essence of risk-reward design that defines Riviera’s character? Share your take: should courses preserve traditional angles and shorter targets, or embrace length to redefine what’s called a par-3?”}
