Hosted by Tiger Woods and the TGR foundation out of LA’s Riviera Country Club, the Genesis Invitational is one of the three player-hosted signature events of the PGA Tour season this year (the others will be the Arnold Palmer and the Memorial). Essentially, this being a signature event means that only the top 50 players of last season’s FedEx cup standings, along with the Aon Next Top 10, the Aon Swing Five, tournament winners from this year, and sponsor’s exemptions(…Tiger) will be playing in this event. If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is. It was the PGA’s answer to LIV, and we’re stuck with it for the foreseeable future. All it means is that around 70 of the best players the PGA has to offer will be teeing it up this week for a massive prize purse and 700 total FedEx Cup points. 

To keep this snappy, there are three things that we’ll be looking for to consider a player’s potential at Riviera CC: 

You’ll hear it everywhere this weekend. Riviera is a difficult driving course. The fairways are narrow and demand precision. Bad drives may leave difficult angles into long par 4’s, often with blind approaches around the many dogleg holes on the course. 

Past performance at a given course is always a nice indicator of a player’s comfort level there, and helps lend insight into how their style of play fits into each individual course. This is perhaps more true of Riviera than most other courses on tour, where the ‘true parkland’ style course often appeals much more to some players than others. For reference, 16 of the last 18 winners have participated in at least 4 tournaments at Riviera before their win.

Well, duh. Of course ball striking is important this weekend. It's important every weekend! But, scoring opportunities at Riviera will be few and far between for players who can’t get the ball close to the hole from distance. With 7 par 4’s longer than 450 yards, and a par 3 that can stretch from anywhere between 230 to 290 yards, the players will have long, difficult approach shots all weekend. To win, they’ll have to take advantage of the par 5’s, and stay around par on all the other holes. 

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Scottie Scheffler at +650 

Scottie has been the best ball striker on the planet for the past two years, and his striking is getting to be red-hot again. He had three missed putts from under 12 feet away in last weekend’s playoff, and I doubt he’ll make that same mistake this weekend. 

Viktor Hovland at +1600 

Hovland has performed well at Riviera in the past, finishing T5 and T4 in ‘21 and ‘22. With this being his third event of the season, we’re looking for him to regain some of last year’s momentum. 

Max Homa at +2000 

Homa is the storyline favorite here. He finished first in 2021 and 2nd last year behind Jon Rahm. His game has been dubious so far this season. However, given how comfortable he is on this course, a win is definitely not out of the question for him. And at 20-1 odds, he’s a pretty juicy play to snag before the tournament starts. 

Sahith Theegala at +4000 

Always the bridesmaid and never the bride…Theegala has made a habit of coming extremely close to winning tournaments, being last week’s 54 hole leader before falling back into 5th. This was unfortunately not an unfamiliar circumstance for Theegala. However, his game is trending in the right direction. He’s one of the best drivers of the ball on Tour, and he’s been putting very well as of late. This could be his weekend, and 40-1 is an enticing offer.

This bet does not make sense. It is possibly the worst bet of the event. If you feel like making a donation in Tiger’s name, do it on the TGR foundation’s website instead of through your favorite sportsbook. Seriously, he’s not going to win… That being said I will still be placing a few hypocritical dollars of wishful thinking behind him in hopes of a miracle. Sue me. 

This group could all be tossed into top 10 bets for all the reasons given above. However, for a list of smarter, safer bets, check out our premium page or our Discord server! 

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