Riviera Country Club plays host to many of the world's top-ranked golfers this week! The Genesis Invitational always provides a tough and entertaining challenge so let's lock in on some top DFS plays for the week! Oh yeah... and Tiger's back!

By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

Tournament & Field 🏆

The PGA Tour will spend one final week out on the West Coast before heading down south to begin the Florida Swing. The Genesis Invitational lands on the docket this week and is hosted by Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, CA, just outside of Los Angeles. This event draws an extremely strong field essentially every year and this go-'round is no different. The strength of this field honestly rivals that of a Major or WGC event. In total, 19 of the top 20 and 63 of the top 100 ranked players in the world are on site. Normally, it wouldn’t be worth noting that the current No. 1,294th-ranked golfer in the world is playing, but that player happens to be Tiger Woods! The Big Cat is back on the prowl in his first big event since last year’s Open Championship at St. Andrews. Since this is an invitational event, the field is a bit smaller than usual – only 130 golfers will compete. The traditional cut rule is also in effect once again with the top 65 players (including ties) after 36 holes moving on to play the weekend. With such a star-studded field, you’ll notice some extremely talented golfers priced way down from where they would normally be. While I prefer a more balanced approach in cash games, feel free to get a bit riskier in your GPPs since half of the field is guaranteed to make the cut.

The Course Preview ⛳

Riviera Country Club

Par 71 | 7,322 Yards

Greens: Poa Annua

Difficulty Rank Last 5 Years: 21st, 17th, 10th, 10th, 9th

Cut Line Last 5 Years: Even, Even, +1, Even, +2

Tournament Start: Thursday, February 16th at 9:40 am ET

Riviera CC is a longer Par 71 setup that extends 7,322 yards. This course tends to provide one of the more difficult challenges on Tour. Riviera CC ranked 21st in overall difficulty in 2022 with an average per-round score of 70.48 (-0.52 under par). It draws many comparisons to Augusta National (The Masters) and you could consider that to be a strong correlating course when researching golfers this week. Riviera CC was redesigned in 2008 and has since favored guys who are longer off the tee (aka ‘bombers’). Shorter hitters aren’t necessarily out of contention here but they will need to be very accurate with their longer irons to stand a chance at a high-end finish. In general, it is best to target golfers who can routinely drive the ball 300+ yards. In this day and age, the majority of PGA golfers are capable of that distance off of the tee and even guys who average around 290 yards will still be able to add a bit more ‘oomph’ on certain holes in order to get it closer to 300+. The narrow tree-lined fairways are some of the hardest to hit on the PGA Tour. Fairway accuracy for the field at this course is usually around 55%… and it even dipped to 49.2% last season – 16.8% below Tour average.

Riviera CC is unique in that it is one of the few courses on the PGA Tour circuit to feature Kikuyu grass on the fairways, rough, and surrounding the greens. Kikuyu is typically found more often in places like Australia, Asia, and South Africa and it is unique due to its spongy and almost sticky-like nature. It can stop golf balls dead in their tracks and the Kikuyu rough can provide some interesting but often playable lies (further advantage to bombers). At times, when a golfer’s ball finds the rough, it can end up sitting on top of the Kikuyu grass and be positioned almost like a tee shot. Other times, it will be snatched down and buried at the bottom which will force a “grip it and rip it” approach. So while there can be friendly lies in the rough, the preferred strategy would be to stay in the fairway where Kikuyu grass cooperates the most.

There are several doglegged holes in play along with strategically placed fairway bunkers protecting the preferred landing zones. With six of the Par 4 holes stretching over 450 yards, expect long irons to be vital as well. The two most common approach distances will be from 150-175 yards and from 200+ yards out. The greens here are above average in size (around 7,500 sq/ft on average), they feature tricky Poa Annua grass, and are well protected by a myriad of menacing bunkers and false fronts. Despite the above-average square footage of the green complexes, the ideal landing zones to get the best looks at birdies are on the smaller side and the greens themselves should run quite firm and fast (between 12-13 on the stimpmeter). This will ultimately force golfers to be on top of their overall short game since many moderately accurate approach shots will still bleed off of the green.

The winning score here has been 11-under or lower for the last seven years, so we can still expect some moderate scoring conditions, especially if the winds cooperate. But make no mistake, Riviera will not be a pushover birdie-fest and golfers are going to have to fight for every birdie they get. Simply scoring par on some of these holes will be considered a win. The margin of victory here has been greater than two strokes only once in the last decade so expect this tournament to easily be one of the most tightly contested and entertaining events we’ve seen up to this point in the season! One final note – course history tends to really come in handy here so golfers who have consistently found success at Riviera CC over the years should be given an extra ‘bump’ within DFS rankings. With all of that said, let’s get a more detailed look at the weather, the stats we should be keying in on, a list of golfers who are popping in my personal model, and this week’s DFS cheat sheet!

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

(Click the image above to view the most up-to-date forecast)

Weather Verdict: It’s a worry-free weather week! The winds are not expected to exceed single digits at any point and there is no rain in the current forecast. Weather should not play a factor in your DFS player pool and/or bets this week.

Genesis Invitational Tee Times

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (SG: App + SG: OTT) | 25%

2. Strokes Gained: Around the Green | 20%

3. Birdie or Better Percentage | 20%

4. Driving Distance | 10%

5. Good Drive % | 10%

6. Proximity from 150-175 Yards | 10%

7. Proximity from 200+ Yards | 5%

PGA Tour Stats Page

Genesis Invitational Model Standouts

Below are the top 20 ranked golfers in both my overall model and my key stats model. Below that are the top 20 leaders in average fantasy points over the last five and last ten starts. The players ranked on these lists do not necessarily mean they are the top golfers I’m targeting for this week's event, but many of these guys should no doubt be favorable DFS options.

Overall Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal DFS model, which weighs all of the key stats listed above in this newsletter, as well as things like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (in relation to the field) in my "key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed above in this newsletter with the specified percentage weights allocated towards each statistic.

Genesis Invitational PGA Cheat Sheet

Click the Cheat Sheet above for the direct image link

Alternative Cheat Sheet Direct Image Link

Cheat Sheet QR Code:

That will do it for our PGA preview! Best of luck this week and, once again, feel free to hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries with any questions.