Club: Riviera CC

Location: Pacific Palisades, California

Date: Feb 13-19, 2012

Online Golf Betting: The Northern Trust Open, formerly known as the Nissan Open and originally as the L.A. Open, is a regular event on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in February in Pacific Palisades, California and is part of the PGA Tour’s west coast swing. The tournament has been contested at the Riviera Country Club on a near-continuous basis since 1973. Chicago based Northern Trust Corporation is the current sponsor of the tournament.

In 1973, the event began its current relationship with Riviera CC, where it has been played every year since except 1983 and 1998. Riviera CC (known as Hogan's Alley) played host to the 1983 PGA Championship, and the 1998 U.S. Senior Open. In an effort to preserve the course, the 1983 event was played at Rancho Park Golf Course, and the 1998 event was contested at Valencia Country Club in Valencia, California.

In 2009, the Northern Trust Open created an exemption for a player who represents the advancement of diversity in golf; it is named in honor of pioneering black golfer Charlie Sifford and is referred to as the Charlie Sifford Exemption. The first exemption recipient was Vincent Johnson of Portland, Oregon. The 2010 Northern Trust Open Exemption was awarded to 23-year-old California native and USC grad Joshua Wooding. This year’s recipient is Joseph Bramlett, a 22 year-old from Saratoga, California who recently became the first black golfer to advance through the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament since 1985. He carded rounds of 67-73-69-69-72-68 to finish T16 at the 2010 PGA TOUR Final Qualifying Tournament, becoming the first black golfer to advance through q-school since Adrian Stills in 1985. He is the second-youngest of 35 rookies on the PGA TOUR this season; in his rookie debut at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Bramlett finished T68.

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2012 Northern Trust Winner - Odd man out Bill Haas rolls at Riviera

Bill Haas, the 2011 FedEx Cup Champion and Tour Championship winner, is not an underdog or an overachiever or any of those other adjectives used to describe people who win when they aren't supposed to. He's not like Jeremy Lin, the current poster boy of overachieving athletes. No coach overlooked Haas as he was coming up through the ranks of junior golf and at Wake Forest.

As a son of Jay Haas, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, he was supposed to make it. But on Sunday at the Northern Trust Open, he must have felt like the odd man out in the three-way playoff with Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. It was Phil's tournament to win and if he didn't win then everybody wanted his protégé, Bradley, to walk away with the trophy.

Starting the day only two shots back of Mickelson and Bradley, Haas was clearly in contention, but before he took the outright lead for the first time at the 17th hole, his name had barely been mentioned as the possible winner of the tournament.

That he got into a playoff by only shooting a 2-under 69 to get to 7-under par proves that all you have to do on a tough golf course is hang around par. Haas didn't really do anything spectacular on Sunday until he made a 43-foot putt on the second playoff hole to beat Mickelson and Bradley. For most of the day, he struggled with his driving. But as he showed at the Tour Championship, he has a penchant for making remarkable recoveries.

2011 Northern Trust Open Winner

Finally a winner again, Aaron Baddeley raised his arms when his last putt dropped into the cup Sunday in the Northern Trust Open as his wife and two young daughters came over to share the moment.

They might have been among the few cheering him on at Riviera.

Baddeley could hear chants of "Freddie!" at every turn, and it got even louder when Fred Couples birdied the opening three holes to take the lead. Unfazed, Baddeley cared only about a victory that was just as meaningful to him.

He did just enough.

In a battle of generations, the 29-year-old Australian made his best putt after his only big mistake and closed with a 2-under 69 to hold off Vijay Singh and Couples, and win for the first time in four years.

Baddeley wound up with a two-shot win over Singh, who turns 48 on Tuesday. The big Fijian closed with a 69 for his best finish in more than two years. Couples, who still had hope on the 16th, bogeyed two of the last three holes and shot 73 to tie for seventh in his bid to become the PGA TOUR's oldest winner in more than 35 years.