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Riviera's long history of celebrity sightings

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:32:00 GMT

Located only a few miles from Beverly Hills, Riviera Country Club has always been a popular hangout for Hollywood A-listers. Among those who have held memberships at the host of this week's Northern Trust Open are Walt Disney, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck and more recently, Adam Sandler and Larry David. With names like that patrolling the grounds, you can expect the presence of many distinguished (and not always well-behaved) celebrity guests.

Around the time Riviera became known as "Hogan's Alley" (Ben Hogan won the LA Open in 1947, '48 and '50 and the U.S. Open at Riviera in '48), Humphrey Bogart spent so much time watching golf from underneath a sycamore tree on the 12th hole that the club eventually named the tree after him. "Bogey's Tree" sits left of the green and provided a comfortable spot for Bogart to relax with a thermos of Jim Beam and watch the pros play through. This is not surprising considering Bogart once said, "The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."

Bogart is only one of many famous entertainers of his day who frequented Riviera, joining the likes of Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, even Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, who shot the 1953 film The Caddy on the club's grounds that included a cameo appearance by Ben Hogan himself.

In the Los Angeles area, Hollywood shenanigans at country clubs have been curbed in recent years according to David D. Pavoni, co-author of Golf In Hollywood, because of "the era of political correctness." However, that hasn't stopped the antics of Jack Nicholson, who once took a 2-iron to the windshield of a car that had cut him off in traffic. Kevin Cook, a Golf Digest contributing writer, called it, "the most famous instance of road rage meeting golf tantrum."

In another instance of golf tantrum, Nicholson hooked his tee shot on the 12th hole at Riviera and was unable to advance the ball successfully with a 5 iron on his second shot, prompting him to grab a bunch of vines in anger hanging from a nearby tree.

"They pulled back! Lifted me straight up in the air so I was flying around for a few seconds before I came down," said Nicholson in a 2007 interview with Golf Digest. "Now I can't play that 12th at Riviera without somebody saying, 'The Tarzan Hole!'"

Larry David, creator of Seinfeld and the star of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm, has had his moments at Riviera as well. David is a member there and has filmed several Curb scenes at the club, although not this memorable one:

I'd expect David and Nicholson to steer clear of Riviera this week, as most members (especially high-profile ones) tend to do when the PGA Tour invades their course. There should still be plenty of star power, though, with the Northern Trust Open featuring perhaps the year's strongest field to date.

Follow @BrendanMohlerGW

(Photo by Getty Images)

Tenuous golf connection: "Seinfeld" voted funniest sitcom ever

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:03:00 GMT

By Alex Myers

In a new poll conducted by "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair, "Seinfeld" was voted the funniest sitcom of all time. In our much, much more unofficial survey, we think it's also the most golf-friendly TV show in history.

Related: The greatest golf movie scenes

Throughout the series, which spawned 180 episodes over nine years, golf was a recurring topic, usually involving the character of Kramer, played by Michael Richards. The actor isn't known to be a golfer in real life, but co-creator of the show, Larry David, is an avid one -- something that has been seen many times on his later series, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Without further ado, here are some of our favorite "Seinfeld" scenes involving golf:

-- In the episode titled "The Caddy," Kramer is advised on everything, from reading greens to clothing, by "Stan the caddy."

-- In "The Marine Biologist," Kramer throws his clubs in disgust after a sub-par range session at the beach. "I stink! ... "The ball is just sitting there and I can't hit it!"

Of course, later in that episode George saves a beached whale that had one of Kramer's golf balls stuck in its blowhole.

-- In "The Cheever Letters," Kramer complains about losing playing privileges at a private club. "I can't go back to the public courses now. I can't! I won't!"

-- In "The Boyfriend," Kramer ties up Jerry's phone line to go through a golf round in painful detail.

-- And finally, in "The Big Salad," there's the scene in which an angered Kramer talks about penalizing someone he was playing with for cleaning their ball before hitting a shot.

"Hey, a rule is a rule," he says. "And let's face it, without rules, there's chaos."

Hey, Mike Davis, is the USGA hiring?

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Larry David's many stages of grief, er, golf

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:31:00 GMT

We've all been there. And judging by his "Shouts & Murmurs" column in the July 4 issue of The New Yorker, Larry David has been there more than once. The co-creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has enjoyed a fruitful career as America's favorite neurotic, but hasn't enjoyed the same type of success as an avid, but frustrated, golfer.

"The Anger phase lasted for years, and then I entered the next phase, Denial," David writes. 'All I need are some lessons,' I told myself. 'Why should everyone else be able to do it and not me? Why are they good? I'm coordinated. I have a jump shot! I can go to my left. Obviously I have it in me. I have it in me! Next year, I'll go to Orlando and spend a week taking lessons with Leadbetter. I don't care what it costs. How can you spend a week with Leadbetter and not get better? It's impossible.' But I did, and I didn't.

Eventually, David said, he entered the final stage -- Acceptance.

"I will never stand over the ball without considering the disaster about to befall me. I'll never line up a putt and think I'll make it. Never face a chip without fearing the decel.

"And yet I'll continue to play, because I do hit some good shots, especially when I'm on the driving range. I actually hit some great range shots. What the hell is that? I've had swing compliments on the range. 'I love your tempo,' a woman once said to me. That's right--I have good tempo. I've had many other range compliments that I won't bore you with, but, believe me, I'm an eight or a nine on the range."

"So it's clearly psychological. I wonder . . . what if I blindfolded myself ? Is it possible?! Have I stumbled upon the Secret? It makes sense. The reason I can't hit the ball is that I can see it! Tomorrow I'm going to play blindfolded, and if that doesn't work then I'll definitely and unequivocally accept Acceptance. I just want to try this blindfold idea. I have a very good feeling about it. Very good."

-- Sam Weinman

Video: Larry David at the Golf Digest Celebrity Invitational

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Larry David warms up his swing before playing in Golf Digest's 2006 Celebrity Invitational.