Whether this is your first time reading, or you’re a Tour Vet, the First Cut should have something for you. In this “First Cut,”  we’ll cover a wide variety of topics in a short amount of time! Ultimately this article should serve as a guide for the week and what’s to come.

Here’s what you can expect to see in the article:

• Tournament Intro
• Course Preview= By the Numbers, Course Guide
• DFS-Preview- Sweat-sheet/Contest Preview
• Statistical & Player Preview

Tournament Intro: The Genesis Open

Finally, we are done with the multi-course, no shot tracker, tournaments, for the rest of the year…Well, maybe not on the shot tracker portion as any out of country tournament likely won’t have it. The majors have their own apps so no worries there.

This Week’s Course(s): Riviera Country Club 

Designer George Thomas pored over 15 possible layouts before settling on one that now features some of the TOUR’s most iconic holes. In 1926, he published a seminal book, Golf Course Architecture in America, in which he stated the goal behind his work: “When you play a course and remember each hole, it has individuality and change. If your mind cannot recall the exact sequence of the holes, that course lacks the great assets of originality and diversity.”   He considered the course at Riviera Country Club to be his masterpiece. It is the only one of his courses that have never been altered.

Scoring Averages and yearly rank:

• 9/50 .759

Course Numbers  – 7,349 yards – Par 71

The course has three par 5’s, eleven par 4’s (most of which play over par) and four par 3’s and features Poa Annua Greens that will run 12 to 12.6 feet on Tournament Stimpmeter and thus considered semi-fast greens. To make things even more complicated, the green sizes are only 5,000 sq..This is one of the factors that put Riviera in the Hard Course Category since it plays +0.75 strokes Relative to Par (see below for the Par 4 score breakdown and in the Player Preview for correlated “Hard Courses”).

The Average Fairways Hit (Field): 54.3% 

Average Greens in Regulation (Field): 56.5% 

Driving Distance (Field): Average 280 yards 

Last years #s:

• Winning Score: -12
• Top 5 Score- -9
• Cut Number- +3
• Easiest Hole: 1st hole
• hardest Hole: 12thhole
• Best Chance at Streaks: 2,3,4 15-18

DFS Sweatsheet & Scorecard

DFS Preview:

A full preview on the best contests offered in the industry this week.

DraftKings/FanDuel/Yahoo

Player & Statistical Preview:

Player Preview:

This space will merely highlight the golfers competing and their OWGR. For full-field regular events we’ll list out the top 25 ranked golfers by OWGR:

This Weeks top 25:

Statistical Preview:

The PGA Tour has a set of “statistics” that measure golfers performances vs. each other/the rest of the field.  Here is the information on “Strokes Gained” from the winners of the Genesis Open over the last five years:

Average:62

Commentary:

This is the closest’s we’ve seen all four categories lay close together, showcasing the power of Riveria and needing all parts of the game to be on to win here. The only measured category in all four types that was negative over the five years was James Hahn back in 2015 when he was -.046 in putting. The most substantial difference between them is a half stroke, between around the green (.6) and approaches (1.1). Since we are looking at strokes gained total as a significant barometer this week here’s what the last four weeks look like:

For now, that’s all. I’ll be updating the article the more info we get! Around 5:00 PM EST will be the next one.

Until then,

Cheers! As always message me on Twitter or in the Slack Channel if you have any questions.