Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby hope a return to a successful stomping ground will help bring out their best golf.
The two Australians have saluted the famous amphitheatre crowd with the winner’s trophy at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles before – and never tire of returning to one of the US PGA Tour’s most revered courses.
Along with Allenby’s victory in 2001 and Baddeley’s triumph in 2011, Australia has also seen Adam Scott win in 2005 and Steve Elkington claim his 1995 US PGA Championship crown on the course.
“I feel like I’ve always played well here. I have had other chances to win and have contended so I always feel good coming here. It fits my eye,” Baddeley said ahead of Thursday’s opening round of the Northern Trust Open.
A three-time winner on the US Tour, Baddeley has almost solidified his swing once more after multiple coach changes last year.
The Victorian parted ways with Dale Lynch and jumped on with former caddie Dion Kipping before changing once more to former New Zealand tour pro Grant Waite and his partner Chris Como.
The 32-year-old is ultimately seeking a lift in his driving accuracy and greens in regulation percentage, or quite simply, ball-striking.
“If I want to be a top player in the world I have to hit more fairways and more greens,” he said.
The stats are telling.
Baddeley’s best ranking in the past 12 seasons on the tour in driving accuracy is 137th, with just over 60 per cent of fairways hit in 2006. His average is an unenviable 168th and 55.5 per cent.
His greens in regulation figures also make for sad reading with his best ranking 97th at 65.48 per cent in 2011 but his average over the 12 years at 174th and 60.68 per cent.
Over the same span he averaged out as the 12th best putter on tour, inside the top-10 in seven of the 12 years, including the past three.
“My short game is definitely good enough but you can’t keep going around hitting around 50 per cent of fairways and just over 50 per cent of greens,” he said.
“I am getting closer to feeling fully natural. Where it is right now I feel is good enough to play well and good enough to contend.”
Allenby’s victory may have been a distant 13 years ago but the 42-year-old has a spring in his step at Riviera.
“I love coming here and I get a boost of energy whenever I come to play here,” Allenby said.
“I have always played well here. Even though I’ve missed a few cuts I seem to have more top-10s here then any other tournament.”
Marc Leishman, Geoff Ogilvy, Greg Chalmers, Stuart Appleby, Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones and John Senden round out the Australian contingent this week.
