Northern Trust Open Preview

The Canuck Duo is back on the playing scene

 Another weekend is ahead of us with the Northern Trust Open at The Riviera Country Club in beautiful Pacific Palisades, California. This weekend’s tournament is featuring both of our Canucks; David and Graham [as noted on PGATour.com under international players :) ]. Graham is coming off of a tough let down in last weekend’s performance at the AT &T Pebble Beach tournament but has a clear mind and looking to rebound well. I think that with a little holiday in the week (Valentine's Day) will help the players get their mind off the game for a bit and then get them refocused going into the tournament. Tweet from Graham “Happy Valentine's day to my beautiful wife. Thanks for making my life great and easier". Clearly he has a supportive wife and is enjoying the weather is California as noted by tweet "Riviera is in mint shape #understatement". David Hearn on the other is going into the Northern Trust off a well rested weekend as he did not compete in the AT&T tournament in Pebble Beach as he was at Florida practising and preparing for this weekend. Regardless of preparation, I have a good feeling that the Canadians in the field will have a good weekend.

Inside the Field!

The Northern Trust Open purse is $1,170,000 US and the winner takes on 500 FedEx cup points. Last year Aaron Baddeley took home the championship title with a score of -12. I'm sure he is hoping to capture that title again this year. Other big names in the tournament are Australia’s Jason Day and Adam Scott, Fiji's Vijay Singh, South Africa's Trevor Immelman, Rory Sabbatini and Retief Goosen, England’s Justin Rose and Luke Donald, Spain's own Sergio Garcia and finally Clomubia's spidercrawl Camilo Villegas. These are just a few of the big international players alongside America golfers Hunter Mahan, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and old timer Fred Couples making his 30th appearance at the Northern Trust Open.

Northern Trust Givin' Back!!!!

I really like watching this tournament each year (as many / or all other tournaments) because it donates money to local Los Angeles charities. Over the tournaments history is has donated "nearly $52 million for Los Angeles-area charities. All proceeds from the Northern Trust Open support non-profit organisations in Los Angeles and help approximately 15,000 Los Angeles residents each year and 5,000 children, who are cared for in after-school programs. The Northern Trust Open has also enabled 200,000 children to compete in the Watts Summer Games" (pgatour.com). Some of the charities that the tournament has donated to include not limited to:

• Los Angeles Jr. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
• Scga Foundation
• Growth of the game
• Youth/Children     

To add to the donations of the tournament, this year Grammy-Award winning country superstar Martina McBride will be performing a special performance at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles live @ 8pm tonight (Tuesday February 14^th, 2012). All the proceeds will be going to help support the Northern Trust Charities.

Inside scoop of the Riviera Country Club

The course was originally built in 1926 and plays as the 10^th hardest course (out of 51) on the PGA. The current yardage of the course plays approximately 7,279 yards; it has 60 sand bunkers and no water hazards. Finally the course record is currently held by Ted Tryba with a low score of 61which was shot in 3^rd round of the Northern Trust back in 99’. He then went on to finish tied for 2^nd in the tournament.

WRAP UP

Well folks that concludes today’s post. Stay tuned for results following the tournament and hopefully we’ll have our Canadian Golfers rack up some FedEx Cup Points and take home some