LOS ANGELES – As a general rule, long hitters and Riviera Country Club go together like Los Angeles and traffic jams.
Recent winners at the Genesis Open make up a who’s-who list of the game’s longest hitters, from Dustin Johnson last year to Bubba Watson in 2014 and 2016. Just don’t tell Tony Finau it’s a one-dimensional golf course.
Finau led the PGA Tour last year in driving distance and is seventh off the tee with a 301-yard average this week, but it wasn’t his prodigious tee shots that lifted him into a share of the first-round lead.