Power Rankings: The Genesis Invitational

If you ever wondered what it felt like for the PGA TOUR to be at full strength, The Genesis Invitational is that kind of flex.

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The annual stop at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, is the third designated event of the 2022-23 season and, well, it’s pulling out all the stops. All 23 of the Player Impact Program winners of 2022 are committed. That means that Tiger Woods in playing. Also in the field are all of the top 30 in the current FedExCup standings, and that includes all 13 different winners of the 15 tournaments completed this season.

So, yeah, the conclusion of the West Coast Swing is lit. As the saying goes, when in L.A. …! Details of what’s at stake, the complexity of the host course and more can be found below.

Sam Burns, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Will Zalatoris will be among the notables reviewed in Golfbet Insider.

Woods hosts The Genesis Invitational but he’s also a client. This is his 15th career appearance and 372nd PGA TOUR start, the first 14 of which were as an amateur. No one ever will be able to take away from Riviera that it was the site of his debut on the PGA TOUR in 1992, but famously, or arguably infamously, the Riv hasn’t been the stage for a Woods’ victory on TOUR. He’s been twice a runner-up but not in the 21st century.

As of Monday, the field consisted of 130 entrants. That’s 10 more than the approved reservation because of how many eligible among the fully exempt have committed. With $3.6 million, 550 FedExCup points, a three-year PGA TOUR membership exemption and three-year exemptions into the other invitationals operated by the TOUR, you can understand the attraction to peg it alongside Woods & friends. (The field would need to drop below 120 for an alternate to be summoned.)

Riviera sets up exactly the same. It tips at 7,322 yards, the only rough is an inch-and-a-half high, none of the kikuyu that blankets everything but the greens is overseeded, and the Poa annua putting surfaces are governed to touch 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. That said, mid-tournament rain could impact that speed just a bit. Cool and comfortable conditions are forecast throughout. Sea breezes from a southerly direction are not expected to punish.

The primary tandem of challenges at Riviera is decidedly old school – splitting fairways and hitting greens. Targets on average are large at about 7,500 square feet, but sticking approaches, or at least trying to, will test the mettle and resolve of the uninitiated. Greens-in-regulation and proximity-to-the-hole metrics always slot the Riv as one of the toughest to both get it on and get it close. Course management can’t be quantified, but it should be highlighted and circled in the playbook.

The good news is that Riviera also has soft spots – plural. As it so often is the case on the fairest of tracks, there is an inverse relationship between how many (or few) opportunities a player manufactures to stand over a putt for a par breaker and the ease in salvaging par from off the green. Therefore, short game matters most here.

The trio of par 5s on the par 71 also needs to be exploited. Given how legendary Woods has been in capitalizing on par 5s, in this context alone, it’s an upset that he didn’t pick off at least one title at some point. Then again, with that weapon neutralized to some degree by scorable par 5s, it allows the field to rise. Still, the Riv is Woods’ (insert your favorite Hollywood reference to a plot in which the main character chases what it hasn’t achieved … yet).

Oh, and Riviera also is coming off an edition in 2022 during which it surrendered a tournament record in scoring at 70.464. That goes all the way back to 1984 when even basic statistics were first logged in earnest. The course hadn’t averaged under par since 2009.

ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled.

MONDAY: Power Rankings

TUESDAY*: Sleepers

WEDNESDAY: Golfbet Insider

SUNDAY: Payouts and Points, Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle

* - Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.