End of an era at Firestone as event moves to California

At a time of big changes in golf, one development on the senior circuit should not go unnoticed. The Senior Players Championship is moving to California, which likely spells the end of 72 years of PGA Tour presence at Firestone Country Club. Healthcare company Hoag is taking over as title sponsor of the Senior Players and moving it from Firestone to Newport Beach Country Club, which has hosted the Hoag Classic since 1996. It will be played March 25-28 instead of a summer date. That leaves Firestone without a tournament for the first time since the Rubber City Open in 1954. Firestone opened in 1929 as a park for employees of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. It landed the 1960 PGA Championship, which inspired the American Golf Classic from 1961 to 1976. The PGA Championship returned in 1966 and 1975. Firestone also hosted the first big-money event in 1962, the World Series of Golf, for the four major champions of the year. Jack Nicklaus, the 22-year-old U.S. Open champion, won $50,000 (he won $17,500 that year for the U.S. Open). The World Series of Golf became part of the PGA Tour schedule in 1976 (Nicklaus won again), and it became a World Golf Championship in 1999. Tiger Woods won a record eight times. Over 11 straight visits to Firestone starting in 1997, Woods won seven times and never finished worse than fifth. The one year the WGC went to Sahalee outside Seattle in 2002, Firestone hosted the Senior PGA Championship. Justin Thomas won the final WGC at Firestone in 2018 before it moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and the Senior Players Championship took over in 2019. And now it's leaving. 5-ton bench Riviera Country Club will have a new structure in time for the U.S. Women's Open next week, a bench weighing more than 10,000 pounds and incorporating 40% of the preserved root system from a eucalyptus tree that came down during the 2025 wildfires. The course and the clubhouse were spared from the Pacific Palisades fires, though the historic tree on the 15th hole came down. It had been planted in the early 1930s and was part of nearly all of Riviera's history. "I felt it was important to honor what was lost, and what our community endured, by creating something lasting and meaningful," Megan Watanabe, the CEO at Riviera, said in a letter to members. Riviera commissioned artist Taylor Donsker to transform the fallen tree into a circular bench next to the tee on the par-3 14th as a place to pause, reflect and soak up the view. "This bench is dedicated to the Riviera members who faced this time with strength, unity and resilience," Watanabe said. "It stands as a reminder of our shared roots and how we move forward together, with gratitude for the past and the resilience of our community, as we look toward the club's next 100 years." Riviera is celebrating its centennial by hosting the Women's Open for the first time. The Olympics will be held at Riviera in 1928, followed by the U.S. Open in 1931. British Open field Gary Woodland was No. 139 in the world when he won the Houston Open, his first since he had brain surgery in September 2023. It also paved the way for him to return to the British Open. Woodland is at No. 47 this week. He is among 11 players exempt for the British Open through top 50 in the world ranking. The others are Patrick Reed, Kurt Kitayama, Min Woo Lee, Ryan Gerard, Rickie Fowler, Jake Knapp, Jason Day, Alex Smalley, Michael Kim and Matt McCarty. The Memorial will offer one British Open spot and the Canadian Open offers three spots. The British Open also will take the leading five players not already exempt from the top 20 in the FedEx Cup through the Travelers Championship. Stat of the week Scottie Scheffler had only one 5 on his scorecard over four rounds at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He still finished five shots behind Wyndham Clark.