The United States Golf Association announced Riviera Country Club, in Pacific Palisades, Calif., as the host site for the 2017 U.S. Amateur Championship. This will be the third USGA championship held at Riviera Country Club. The dates of the championship are Aug. 14-20.
“The USGA is excited to bring the U.S. Amateur Championship to Riviera Country Club, returning our oldest championship to Southern California for the first time since 1976,” said USGA Vice President and Championship Committee Chairman Thomas J. O’Toole Jr. “Riviera has a rich and varied championship history and will become one of a select group of courses to host the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur. Riviera has known great USGA champions in Ben Hogan and Hale Irwin, and we are confident the club will stage a successful national amateur championship.”
Riviera Country Club was designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell and opened for play in 1927. Ben Hogan defeated Jimmy Demaret by two strokes to win the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera, the first of his record-tying four Open titles. In 1998, three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin sank a 12-foot birdie putt on Riviera’s 18th hole to edge Vicente Fernandez by one stroke and capture the first of his two U.S. Senior Open titles.
“To be selected as the host site of America’s most coveted amateur championship is thrilling to all of us at Riviera and the city of Los Angeles,” said Riviera Country Club Corporate Officer Michael R. Yamaki. “We thank the USGA for the honor to put on the country’s oldest and most prestigious amateur championship.”
One of the world’s great tournament sites, Riviera also hosted the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships and has been the site of the PGA Tour event in Los Angeles 50 times in its 86-year history, including 37 of the past 39 years. The classic layout features a distinctive par-4 finishing hole with a green surrounded by a natural amphitheater that provides a commanding view of the clubhouse. Riviera continues its tournament tradition by hosting the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship this month.
Bel-Air Country Club, in Los Angeles, will serve as the companion course for the stroke-play rounds of the 2017 U.S. Amateur Championship. Designed by Thomas, with assistance from Jack Neville and Bell, Bel-Air has hosted two USGA championships: the 1976 U.S. Amateur (won by Bill Sander) and the 2004 USGA Senior Amateur (won by Mark Bemowski).
Many of golf’s legendary players have won the U.S. Amateur Championship, including Robert T. Jones Jr. (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930), Arnold Palmer (1954), Jack Nicklaus (1959, 1961), Phil Mickelson (1990) and Tiger Woods (1994, 1995, 1996).
In 2017, Riviera Country Club will become the 11th course to have hosted the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur championships. Winged Foot Golf Club, in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Cherry Hills Country Club, in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., and Oakland Hills Country Club, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., are among that group.
The U.S. Amateur was first played in 1895 and is the USGA’s oldest championship. The championship is open to amateur golfers with a USGA Handicap Index® not exceeding 2.4. In 2012, the U.S. Amateur Championship will be played at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., from Aug. 13-19. The 2013 championship will be played Aug. 12-18 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., while the 2014 championship will be held at Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth, Ga., from Aug. 11-17. In 2015, the U.S. Amateur will be played at Olympic Fields (Ill.) Country Club from Aug. 17-23. The 2016 championship will be conducted Aug. 15-21 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Story credit: USGA Photo Credit: Riviera CC
