T.J.'s Take: Can a Rhody do what Tiger and Jack didn't?

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Brad Faxon's final round in the 1995 PGA was bittersweet as he fired out a 63, but it still wasn't enough to win.

As the PGA TOUR heads to Pacific Palisades this week for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club, it marks the third consecutive week that players are greeted to a venue that has played host to a major championship.

In all, Riviera has hosted four major championships -- the 1948 U.S. Open, the 1983 and 1995 PGA Championships and the 1998 U.S. Senior Open.

There are several things that make Riviera one of the most special stops on TOUR.

First, there's the mystique. The legendary Ben Hogan gave the course its nickname, "Hogan's Alley," after winning the former Los Angeles Open three times at Riviera in the 1940s and finishing second once to go along with his win at the '48 U.S. Open.

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Second, there's the list of champions, which includes Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Ben Crenshaw, Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Corey Pavin, Craig Stadler, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Mike Weir and Phil Mickelson. All major champions.

Thirdly, and perhaps most eye-popping to me, are the two names that list doesn't include -- Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Woods came closest to winning the Los Angeles Open, finishing runner-up in a 1998 playoff to Billy Mayfair. No offense to either player, but that one doesn't really count when you factor in the Riviera angle, seeing as Hogan's Alley wasn't in play that year. Preparations were being made for the U.S. Senior Open, so Valencia Country Club was used instead.

You'd be hard-pressed to find another track on TOUR that's been around as long as Riviera that doesn't have one of the two aforementioned names on a piece of hardware in the clubhouse.

Bottom line, if you win at Riviera, you've done something special, and you forever own a trophy to show the grandchildren with your name etched alongside those of the game's greatest.

Another aspect that makes Riviera as compelling as it is beautiful is the fact that it's not a bomber's track like so many other major sites have become, including Torrey Pines two weeks ago and Pebble Beach this past week. Riviera has always been a shotmaker's course.

For our purposes here, I'd like to focus a little on that memorable 1995 PGA Championship, which was won by shotmaker Steve Elkington -- his lone major title.

However, instead of giving the spotlight to Elk, we're instead going to take a look at the guy who finished fifth that year and has never actually won a major.

Who says people only remember the champion?

The fifth-place finisher at the 1995 PGA Championship was Rhode Island's own Brad Faxon.

And if this comes off as the "homer" portion of this column, I'm guilty as charged. While Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union, what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in pride.

In the final round 14 years ago, Faxon fashioned an incredible 8-under 63, which included just the second front-nine 28 in major history.

But the significance of that 63 went far beyond the fifth-place finish and his best yet showing in a major.

With that number, Fax secured his first of two consecutive appearances on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Unfortunately, both Ryder Cup appearances for Fax turned out to be losing efforts for the Americans.

Still, no one can take that final round at Riviera in 1995 away from Faxon.

We in Rhode Island love our golf and have a great appreciation for our TOUR players, a roll that includes Faxon, Billy Andrade, Brett Quigley, Dana Quigley, Pat Sheehan, P.H. Horgan and Brad Adamonis.

Is that not impressive for the country's tiniest state, one that basically has a six-month golf season?

While Dana Quigley has been a force in recent years on the Champions Tour, Faxon stands as Rhode Island's most successful TOUR product having racked up eight career wins.

Faxon and Adamonis will be the only two carrying the torch for little Rhody this week at Riviera.

Here's to hoping either of them can help all of us in the Ocean State puff our chests out a little further at week's end, and add their name to the extraordinary list of champions.

And if Fax or Adamonis can pull it off? Well, it'll be something Jack never did and something Tiger hasn't done yet.

Not many in professional golf can hang their hat on that.

T.J. Auclair is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.