There are those who proclaim no interest in golf course design yet that group would be hard pressed to make the case that the arrangement of the holes at the California layout contributes little or nothing to the intrigue on the scoreboard.

Golf courses and books share something in common in this regard, the holes on a golf course akin to the sentences in a book.

Sentences are collections of words yet not all collections of words are necessarily sentences. Golf courses are collections of holes yet not every golf course forms a coherent sentence.

In both cases they have to be arranged, preferably by someone who knows what they’re doing, to work properly.

A golf course that isn’t walkable, for example, is a bit like a book with poor punctuation.

It’s still a book and if you work hard at reading it you can kind of figure it out but it never truly satisfies or makes complete sense.

And just as there are great books, good books, decent books and bad books, golf courses fall into the same categories.

Some courses are like text books, laying out a series of questions that have only one correct answer. They are a test almost exclusively of execution with little or no imagination required and you certainly wouldn’t buy one to read for pleasure.

(Many courses we see used for professional play fall into this category, the U.S Open setups of the 80’s and 90’s perhaps among the most extreme examples.)

Other courses, however, like Riviera (and the Old Course and Augusta National and Royal Melbourne etc) much more resemble a great novel.

“Sentences are collections of words yet not all collections of words are necessarily sentences. Golf courses are collections of holes yet not every golf course forms a coherent sentence.”

There are twists and turns and intrigue. The plot is never really clear until the final putt is holed.

They are courses that allow for excitement and mistakes and recovery. They test not only a player’s hitting ability but their imagination, too.

Riviera’s 10th hole (thankfully modified a little this year to become more playable) is a prime example of what makes the course – and by default the tournament – more interesting than many others.

Nobody has ever described the short par-4 better than former L.A Times columnist Jim Murray who wrote: "It is a shameless little harlot that just sits there at the end of the bar in her miniskirt and mesh stockings and winks at you."

It’s a driveable par-4 (with just a 3-wood for many in the modern game) but in reality, the only thing it drives is doubt and madness in the players.

It’s a delightfully constructed, multi layered and nuanced sentence right in the middle of a fabulous book.

And it’s a perfect illustration of what makes golf worth watching at Riviera over many other venues, irrespective of who might be in contention.