The Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games got a boost this past weekend when its proposed golf venue, the Riviera Country Club, successfully hosted the annual PGA Tour’s Genesis Open as well as golf’s biggest names, including the gold and bronze medalists at Rio 2016. Riviera has been home to PGA Tour pros and the biggest names in golf since 1929, including Tiger Woods. It will also host the US Amateur in August.
The 50,000-capacity Riviera Country Club is located in Santa Monica Canyon adjacent to the Pacific Ocean and nine minutes from the proposed Olympic Village at UCLA.
LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman said “the City of Angels was proud to host current and future Olympians at one of America’s most iconic courses, the Riviera Country Club, LA 2024’s proposed golf venue. Steeped in golfing history Riviera has repeatedly shown itself to be an excellent stage for international competitions and is a further example of the world-class sports facilities in LA already hosting elite athletes from around the world”.
Former World Number 1 Jordan Spieth said “it would be incredible. Slightly more than half the field will have played this event before, and are therefore familiar on the golf course.”
“I think it would showcase beautifully this area. It would be amazing if the Games did come here. It would be pretty cool for the country to have another Olympic Games and really cool for the city of LA.”
LA is bidding for the 2024 Olympics alongside Paris and Budapest. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select the host city September 13 in Lima, Peru.
