Livescore
The PGA Tour announced Thursday that the Genesis Invitational – scheduled Feb. 13-16 in Pacific Palisades, California – will be moved because of recent devastating fires.
That begs the question: Where will the tournament be played instead of Riviera Country Club? The Tour didn’t say, as officials surely are busy working out the details. Chances are great that Tour officials are working with longtime site partners to smooth out this transition, and it’s entirely possible the Tour stays put at a recent host site to take advantage of available infrastructure. There’s a lot to consider in putting on a Tour event – crowds, parking, hotels, availability – and that’s especially true on short notice.
It’s unlikely the Tour will stay in Los Angeles, even though several other great courses besides Riviera dot the landscape. Also unlikely would be a move to Florida, even though the Tour would be headed there soon enough for the Florida Swing. California or Arizona, the main states of the West Coast Swing, are likely contenders.
And with all that said, this is a chance for a one-off tournament site, and we have some thoughts based on Golfweek’s Best rankings of potential courses that could snuggle right into the West Coast Swing. Following are several layouts where we would love to see Tour players tee it up – these might be unreasonable requests, but it would just be a blast to see these courses on the telecast and a fun chance to see something new, or possibly old.
Will it happen? Probably not. But a boy can dream.
California Golf Club
Willie Locke and A. Vernon Macan were the original designers of what is known as Cal Club, and the famed Alister MacKenzie – of Cypress Point, Augusta National and Royal Melbourne fame, among others – later put his stamp on it. Most recently, Kyle Phillips restored the course in San Francisco that is known as a design masterpiece (ranking No. 5 among California’s private courses and tied for No. 27 among all classic courses in the U.S.). Golf architecture nerds – including this author – would swoon if the pros could play Cal Club. And with apologies for deviating from what was promised as a five-course list, an incredible alternative would be San Francisco Golf Club, that A.W. Tillinghast masterpiece that also would fire up Twitter’s golf architecture fanbase.
Cypress Point
Speaking of Cypress Point and Alister MacKenzie, this might be a stretch but it certainly would be can’t-miss viewing. Ranked by Golfweek’s Best as the No. 1 classic course in the U.S. and our highest-rated layout in the world in 2024, Cypress Point in California hosted the Tour for decades as part of what has become the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but the Tour left after 1990 because the club had no Black members. Things have changed, and the club is slated to host the USGA’s Walker Cup this September. A return to TV of the iconic par-3 16th hole, over thrashing waves to its incredible green, would draw eyeballs like nothing else. Cypress Point is a bit short by modern Tour standards, but if the breezes blow, it would be a blast to see.
Pasatiempo
Jim Urbina recently wrapped up a restoration to this Alister MacKenzie masterpiece that opened in 1929. Located just north of Santa Cruz about a 90-minute drive south of San Francisco, this is one of this author’s favorite courses played in recent years. Across rolling and sandy terrain, Pasatiempo would challenge Tour pros with all kinds of awkward shots, and its par-3 18th would be a great amphitheater to wrap up a tournament. The freshly restored greens are some of the most perplexing putting surfaces in golf, and the viewing would be wonderful. Best of all, Pasatiempo is basically a classic private club that allows limited public-access play, in line more with the United Kingdom access model of great courses than those found in the U.S. – it’s not cheap, but it’s possible. The course ranks as the No. 2 public-access layout in the state and is No. 36 among all classic courses in the U.S., and those numbers came in before the restoration was complete.
Bandon Dunes’ Pacific Dunes
Yes, the weather along Oregon’s southern coast this time of year might be iffy, but it’s doable – the resort’s courses are open year-round, and this author can attest that some winter days are beautiful along this shore. The tee sheet tends to be full, but things could be arranged because Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has four other full-size courses. The fact is, Pacific Dunes is a must-play, bucket-list course for any American golfer, so why should Tour players be any different? The U.S. Women’s Amateur already is scheduled this year for the resort, which has hosted the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Junior and a Curtis Cup among a handful of other USGA events. Recent events have been played on the resort’s Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails courses, but it would be can’t-skip viewing to watch Tour pros battle it out on Tom Doak’s cliffside masterpiece that opened in 2001 and ranks as the No. 1 public-access course in Oregon and the No. 3 modern course in the U.S.
Scottsdale National
Ranked as the No. 3 private course in Arizona, the main 18 has been dubbed The Other Course, an 18-hole design by Tim Jackson and David Kahn that opened in 2016. This is an ulta-private club, and a Tour event would peel back the curtain for viewers. As with most of the selections on this list, it’s worth noting that it might be easier for the Tour to secure a multi-course private club as host site, because it it’s easier to shuffle members around than it would be for a top resort to cancel a week’s worth of tee times that were booked well in advance. The Other Course features six par 3s, six par 4s and six par 5s, and it would be a welcome deviation from the standard routing seen so often on the PGA Tour. Scottsdale National is also home to the Bad Little Nine, a top-ranked par-3 course that can be simply vicious – it would be awesome to see any potential playoff headed to those short, treacherous holes. This would be an easy move for the Tour, because the Tour plays the WM Phoenix Open the week before, also in Scottsdale. Of all the Valley of the Sun’s great possibilities, this would be a fun one. Quick, somebody call Bob Parsons.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Genesis Invitational is moving. Here are 5 dream golf courses to host
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post