PGA DFS Picks: Finally, we have a normal tournament that features one course, 120 players and most of the world’s best. The Riviera Course has hosted this tournament since the late 1970s, giving us over 40 years of history. While most of the golfers competing this week weren’t alive 40 years ago, it still provides us plenty of data to analyze.
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PGA DFS Course Fit
The topic of course history has been widely debated in the PGA DFS industry. No matter which way you tend to lean, there is certainly something to be said about a golfer’s game fitting a particular style of course. That’s not debatable. So we dive into the history to see if we can identify a pattern and see why a golfer may be a great fit at this specific course.
*All stats are from 2013 to present.
Opening Remarks
Riviera Country Club is one of the best courses on the tour’s circuit. The PGA Tour finally recognized this by giving the Genesis tournament invitational status and bulking up the field and prize pool, making it a destination stop. Since 2013, 12 golfers have competed all seven years. Of those 12, no one has made the cut all seven times, and only Dustin Johnson, J.B. Holmes, Pat Perez and Charley Hoffman have made the cut six out of the seven tries.
13 golfers are making their tournament debut, including Matthew Fitzpatrick, Erik Van Rooyen, Corey Conners, Lanto Griffin and Wyndham Clark. Now, let’s take a look at some of the data we have on players that have played here in the last seven years. Some notable first-time finishes include Jordan Spieth (12th in 2014), Jon Rahm (ninth in 2019), Justin Thomas (41st in 2015) and Alex Noren (16th in 2018).
Positive
- Dustin Johnson leads with five top-10s since 2013, while the next closest is three, done by Bubba Watson and Adam Scott. Seven golfers have two top-10s: Kevin Na, Ryan Moore, Marc Leishman, Jordan Spieth, Martin Laird, Hideki Matsuyama and Justin Thomas. Thomas has done it in back-to-back years.
- A handful of players have three top-25s in the last seven years. They include Scott, Sung Kang, Vaughn Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Cameron Tringale, Keegan Bradley, Jason Kokrak and Rory McIlroy.Â
- Speaking of McIlroy, he’s the only golfer to have come inside the top 25 in all appearances with a minimum of three starts. Xander Schauffele has done it in both of his trips
- Thomas is the only golfer working off of back-to-back top-10s, but several have made consecutive top-15s. That includes Schauffele, as we just mentioned, Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau. Patrick Rodgers, Luke List, Rafa Cabrera Bello, McIlroy, Taylor and Johnson have all made back-to-back top-26s.
Negative
- Danny Lee can not figure out the Riviera, missing the cut each of the last four years, and coming in 69th the year before that. He’s the only one with four misses, but a bunch of golfers has three, including Kevin Tway, J.J. Spaun and Matt Every. Brian Gay has missed three of four cuts, as have Kyle Stanley and Si Woo Kim. Francesco Molinari’s record isn’t that much better, going 3-for-5 in missed cuts, and his two made cuts were a 52nd and 40th.
- Harold Varner III joins Molinari, Lee and Chris Stroud as the only golfers with at least five tries and no-top 25s here. Gay joins Stanley, Russell Henley, Peter Malnati and Scott Piercy with zero top-25s in four starts. None of them, however, measure up to Pat Perez, who has no top-25s in all seven attempts since 2013. Although, he’s made the cut six out his seven tries.
- There are a handful of golfers that have missed the cut in back-to-back years, a lot of whom are listed above. Those who are not listed above including Aaron Wise, Cameron Champ, Andrew Landry, Joel Dahmen, Tyler Duncan and Jhonattan Vegas.Â
