90 Years On, Riviera Ready To Test World's Best

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A much needed storm will take some fire out of the greens for Thursday's opening of the final Northern Trust Open. That's normally a bummer but considering the speed of Riviera's greens and the impact they have on certain holes--namely the par-4 tenth as we discussed on Golf Central--but it should provide room for some aggressive shotmaking that has been missing in recent years. Jordan Spieth might lose a little of his iron play advantage on day one but I still like his chances by day four.

The forecast is excellent for all four days where Spieth and Rory McIlroy bring a rare No. 1 vs. No. 2 3 to the PGA Tour (notes the NY Times's Karen Crouse), while a host of interesting names begin their Masters prep.

McIlroy is not merely making his first Riviera start, but his first West Coast Swing appearance. And while Brandel's getting under his skin, he's otherwise speaking with a confident, almost trash-talking edges, notes ESPN.com's Jason Sobel.

"Sometimes I still get those feelings of -- I don't want to say I have guilt, but sometimes I feel like I haven't had to work as hard to get to where I am as some other people. I don't know if that's guilt or if that's questioning, 'Why is that me? Why am I the one that feels this way?' But I feel now that I definitely have got a ruthlessness on the course that I maybe didn't have a few years ago."

In the demure world of golf, that's as boastful as a player will ever get.

It's hard to believe since I can still remember his drives barely clearing the hill on 18 and just how poor the conditioning was back then, but Lanny Wadkins' 20-under-par scoring record is the oldest on the PGA Tour.

Doug Ferguson caught up with Wadkins about that remarkable week where he broke the tournament scoring record by six. Ferguson also explores why the record has stood so long (hint, rough, then course changes and most recently green speed are probably the culprit).

James Hahn won in a playoff at Riviera last year at 6-under 278. Told the scoring record, he wanted to know who shot it.

"Is he in the Hall of Fame?" he asked. "I think just off of that, he should be."

Not to worry. Wadkins was inducted in 2009. He won 20 other times on the PGA Tour, including a PGA Championship at Pebble Beach.

Memories of that week remain clear for Wadkins.

He didn't have to save par until the par-3 fourth hole in the third round. He never went for the green on the short par-4 10th. And he ran off four straight birdies around the turn.

I reviewed the airtimes in this week's Forward Press, including PGA Tour Live, Golf Channel and CBS times, plus the much needed Featured Group/Featured Hole windows.

And here's a fun, fast look at the 10th: