Northern Trust Open 2014: Tee times, pairings for Thursday’s round

It’s only mid-February, but this week marks the final PGA Tour event in California this season. The penultimate event of the annual West Coast swing stops at historic Riviera Country Club just outside Los Angeles for the Northern Trust Open. With no majors on the 2014 schedule, the Northern Trust Open is it for Cali as things bounce over to Arizona and then Florida to kickstart the rest of the regular season out east.

Riviera is one of the Tour pros favorite courses, a classic and smaller design that should long be a staple on the annual rota. It’s consistently produced exciting finishes, and remains the flagship golf event in the LA area. Unfortunately, there will be no Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson this year, with Lefty opting to take the next two weeks off before the Florida swing. Mickelson has appeared at this event regularly, but this year he’s put a new schedule in play to cut down on non-majors for a practice and rest regime that specifically targets the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Woods, on the other hand, has long passed on the premiere event in his hometown, and taken much criticism for it. Most blame Tiger’s dislike of the bumpy Poa annua putting surfaces for repeatedly passing on the NTO, and with his World Challenge event now moving out east, he’ll no longer play at all in the LA area.

Tiger and Phil may be missing, but there are still some heavy hitters in the field. A majority of the 2014 USA Ryder Cup team is likely here, with names like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, and Matt Kuchar teeing it up. Kuchar took the month off after the two-week start in Hawaii, and he’s always a favorite to play well at Riviera. Dustin looked solid last week at Pebble, and Spieth continues to pop up on the first page of the leaderboard at just 20-years old. There are other famous American faces like Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson playing, and a talented roster of internationals in attendance. And then there’s the course, which is often reason enough to watch, with its drivable par-4 10th, punishing finishing holes, and lengthy par-3s, including No. 6, which has a bunker in the middle of the green.

After last week’s rotation on the three Monterey Peninsula courses, we’re back to morning and afternoon waves on split tees, with no celebrity amateurs clogging up the tee sheet. The earliest groups will be out at dawn at 6:40 a.m. local time, which is very rare start time on Tour. But the broadcast window (5 to 8 p.m. ET on Golf Channel) should catch the end of the morning wave and then all of the afternoon groups with some of the aforementioned accomplished names making their first tour through. Here’s the tee sheet for Thursday, all times ET:

Afternoon wave off No. 1:

• Healthy Justin Rose looks forward to 2014 debut

• Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s niece, content to toil in LPGA minor

• Watch Fowler and Uihlein showboat with flop shot wizardry

• Jimmy Walker joins elite company with third win in eight starts

• Sand vandals troll CBS at Pebble Beach | #Lookit