1. Riviera played like a major championship all week and the rains halfway through the final round seemed to make the course tougher. No one could get the ball to the hole on eighteen.
2. Retief Goosen started the final round with a two shot lead and things looked great with an opening birdie. But a bogey on seven and a double on eight ended his chances for the win. Still, at 46 with a new lease on a golfing life after major back surgery The Goose has to take away plenty of positives from Riviera.
3. The Northern Trust Open turned out to be one very exciting tournament. There were a dozen names within a few shots the entire day and as the pressure built there were many that wilted despite the cool rain falling on Riviera. 
4. James Hahn takes home his first PGA Tour win on a classic course amid a jammed packed leaderboard. Hahn and Dustin Johnson got up and down from hell alongside the second playoff hole, the controversial tenth. He made one hell of a winning putt on the third hole, the fourteenth. When Johnson’s putt missed Hahn had earned his first PGA Tour win and his life changed forever.
5. Sergio Garcia had his chance for the win but faded big time at the end. You don’t win with bogeys on seventeen and eighteen. He was a stand up guy afterwards and said he didn’t play good enough to win. He’s right.
6. Jordan Spieth has to be kicking himself. The 21 year old three putted eighteen to miss out on the playoff.
7. Paul Casey should feel worse: he bogeyed eighteen to fall into the playoff. A par would have won him the tournament.
8. Dustin Johnson’s six month hiatus seems to have paid off. After an understandably rusty start with a missed cut he’s gone T4 and T2. Not too shabby.
9. Lydia Ko continues to fly under the radar even with another win at The Australian Women’s Open. This kid is so humble and mellow it’s keeping her out of the media spotlight. Maybe that’s a good thing after all.
10. The Golf Channel posted an interesting stat: Ko has 9 pro wins. Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson combined have 9 pro wins. Wow.
Playoff Hole 1. In between shots of the Northern Trust I took a peek at the Daytona 500. What a finish. It was just as jammed up on the track as it was on the course. Congrats to Joey Logano, a Yankee from Connecticut winning NASCAR’s biggest race. 
Playoff Hole 2. Lydia Ko isn’t the only teenager winning in women’s golf. A sixteen year old high school junior amateur managed a win on the Symetra Tour. Hannah O’Sullivan became the youngest ever Symetra Tour winner when she won the Gateway Classic by four shots.
Playoff Hole 3. Hahn isn’t a household name and he is probably remembered for being that guy who danced that Gangnam Style dance on the 16th at the Waste Management Open. Well, he’s more than that now. He’s that PGA Tour winner who danced that Gangnam Style dance on the 16th at the Waste Management Open.
Bonus. In Hahn’s PGA Tour bio he lists Augusta National as the course he would most like to play. Dreams come true, this win gets him into The Masters and he’ll be motoring down Magnolia lane in less than six weeks. Way to go James.
Related Articles
