Welcome back to the historic Riviera Country Club, one of my favourite courses on Tour, and a venue that many players also list among their favourites.
As a reminder, last year’s Genesis Invitational was moved from Riviera to Torrey Pines (South Course) due to the unfortunate LA wildfires at the time. Thankfully, the tournament returns to Riviera this year, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it back in action. The Genesis Invitational “Tiger’s Tournament” marks the second Signature Event of the season, following last week’s event at Pebble Beach. With all the top names in the field, it should set up for an incredible week.
The only downside? The weather forecast calls for significant rain from Monday through Thursday, which likely means Riviera will play extremely soft. Not exactly a shocker it is California in February after all. Well done, PGA Tour!!
That said, I’m hopeful the rumors circulating about a shake-up to the 2027 PGA Tour schedule and beyond turn out to be true. Specifically, the idea of moving the Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, and Riviera stretch to the summer as playoff venues. Seeing Riviera in firm, fast summer conditions would be an absolute treat.
Regardless, it’s Riviera with the top players in the world. It’s going to be a great watch.
The Course
Quick Course Details:
Course: Riviera Country Club
Par: 71 (4 – par threes, 3 – par fives, 11 – par four’s)
Yardage: 7384
Greens: Poa Annua
Typical Field Average Score to Par: Par 5’s: -0.42 (under-par), Par 4’s: +0.13 (Over-par), Par 3’s: +0.09 (Over-par)
No Water in play!
Riviera sets up as the complete opposite of what we saw last week at Pebble Beach. At Pebble, players were presented with far more wedge opportunities than the Tour average. This week, that flips entirely. Riviera demands a heavy dose of mid-iron approach shots and features fewer wedge approaches than Tour norms.
From 2021–2024, roughly 25% of approach shots have come from 150–175 yards and another 25% from 175–200 yards — both well above the PGA Tour average for those distance buckets. In contrast, the 50–100 yard and 100–150 yard ranges consistently fall well below Tour average in approach frequency.
Simply put, mid-iron play will be far more important than wedge play this week. We’ll also likely see an above-average number of approaches from 225+ yards, meaning long irons and even fairway woods into greens will play a key role.
As always at Riviera, it’s critical to take advantage of the par 5s. There are three of them, and they consistently play under par for the field. In fact, typically only four holes play under par for the week — the three par 5s and the short, fun, drivable par-4 10th.
The 10th remains one of the best risk-reward drivable par 4s on Tour.
Notable Players in the Field
As mentioned, this week is a Signature Event, so we’ll see all of the premier players on Tour in the field, including:
Scottie Scheffler – Still searching for his first win at Riviera. He’s coming off two unusual tournaments by his standards. At both the Waste Management (T3) and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T4), he played poorly in Round 1, gradually improved throughout the week, and then made a massive Sunday charge that ultimately came up just short. If he can put four complete rounds together, he’ll be right there.
Rory McIlroy – Made his season debut last week, finishing T14. He looked sharp overall and easily could have contended if not for a few big numbers — very “Rory-like” mistakes that crept onto the card. A couple of double bogeys and even a triple bogey held him back. Clean that up, and he’s a serious threat.
Tommy Fleetwood – The big question: will he surprise us with a new clothing sponsor now that his Nike deal expired at the end of 2025, or will he continue rocking pro-shop merch? Anyways Fleetwood also made his season debut at Pebble and looked excellent, finishing T4. He’s building off the best year of his career in 2025, and his elite ball striking should set up beautifully for Riviera.
Collin Morikawa – Finally slayed the dragon at Pebble and picked up another PGA Tour victory. He did it in classic Morikawa fashion, gaining over two strokes on approach against the field. However, he still lost strokes putting and barely gained around the greens. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can stack another strong performance or if he regresses toward the poor results we saw late in 2025 and early this season.
Other top-10 players in the world teeing it up this week include Justin Rose, Russell Henley, Chris Gotterup, J.J. Spaun, Bob MacIntyre, and Hideki Matsuyama
Tournament History / Past Results
Past Winners + score to par + winning margin:
Last 5 years:
2025: Ludvig Aberg, -12 (Margin: 1 shot) (*Different Course*) (In field)
2024: Hideki Matsuyama, -17 (Margin: 3 shots) (In field)
2023: Jon Rahm, -17 (Margin: 2 shots)
2022: Joaquin Niemann, -19 (Margin: 2 shots)
2021: Max Homa, -12 (Margin: Playoff) (In field)
2020: Adam Scott, -11 (Margin: 2 shots) (In field)
No other players in the field that have won.
Players with a recent good track record here (Yet to win):
Patrick Cantlay –> T4 (2024), 3 (2023), T33 (2022), T15 (2021)
– Outright Led after first three rounds in 2024
Harris English –> 7 (2024), T12 (2023), didn’t play previous to that
Jason Day –> T9 (2024), 9 (2023), didn’t play previous to that
Scottie Scheffler –> T10 (2024), T12 (2023), T7 (2022), T20 (2021)
Collin Morikawa –> T19 (2024), T6 (2023), T2 (2022), T43 (2021)
Viktor Hovland –> T19 (2024), T20 (2023), T4 (2022), T5 (2021)
Since 2016, this tournament has only gone to a playoff once, with a two-shot winning margin being a fairly common outcome. The typical blueprint for success at Riviera has been players who are long off the tee and elite mid- to long-iron ball strikers.
It’s also notable that some of the game’s biggest stars have never managed to get across the line here — including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler. The winning score usually falls somewhere in the low to high teens under par. With soft conditions expected this week, something around -18 feels like a reasonable target.
After back-to-back weeks of slow starts followed by near-comeback victories, I think this is the week Scottie finally puts four strong rounds together. I’m calling for him to pick up win No. 21 on the PGA Tour and his first at Riviera.
Excited to see this iconic course back in action and fingers crossed this is the last year we see it played in February.
