Product Guide

SITE

SEARCH

GOLF COURSE SEARCH:

GOLF CALENDAR

submit your event here
May 2012
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
293012345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
272829303112
3456789

West Coast Swing Preview

Untitled Page

Brain trust

Riviera Country Club member Amy Alcott knows the course as well as anyone — just ask 2008 winner Phil Mickelson.

BY ELI MILLERPublished: February, 2009

Riviera's storied clubhouse overlooks the ninth hole.
Amy Alcott was never an overpowering player. She relied on precision and a deft touch to win 29 times on the LPGA Tour — including five majors — and gain induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The Santa Monica resident credits a lot of her development to playing at Riviera Country Club, the site of February’s Northern Trust Open. With the help of her instructor, Walter Keller, Alcott attained a junior membership at the Pacific Palisades club and spent countless hours there prior to turning pro at 18.

“That’s pretty much where I grew my game for playing the Tour,” she said.

Now the program director of the girls golf team at Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood and an occasional player on the Legends Tour, Alcott (pictured) still finds time to tee it up at Riviera and watch a PGA Tour event that has generated an eclectic list of winners by virtue of being contested on such an esteemed track.

“Really great golf courses make people get excited to play them. That’s why I think it brings out the champions like the Phil Mickelsons and the Mike Weirs — people that are proven, major championship winners — and then it’s had its share of first-time winners,” she said. “There are only so many really great courses like Augusta, Oakmont, Pebble and Riviera, that the minute you know you’re going to play them, you get a little more revved up.”

In 2008, Alcott’s attendance at the Northern Trust was noteworthy since she walked the course with Mickelson prior to the first round. The advice she offered Lefty on the greens proved to be invaluable, as he had 28 or fewer putts in each round on his way to victory.

“If you look back at the days of [Ben] Hogan and [Sam] Snead, I can’t imagine them calling Patty Berg up and saying, ‘Would you come out and help me with greens?’ I think it speaks to Phil and his innate curiosity of always trying to be better,” Alcott said. “He has a lot of respect for me and what I’ve accomplished, and it all comes out of mutual respect for each other.

NORTHERN TRUST OPEN TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

PREVIEW OF THE NORTHERN TRUST OPEN FIELD