An incredible streak is brewing on the PGA Tour, as the last three winners all missed a cut in the week prior to their win. Daniel Berger capped off a fantastic week outlasting both Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay in the end to earn his fifth PGA Tour title. This week, we get the strongest field of the year so far at the famed Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Let’s dive right into the top Genesis Invitational DraftKings and FanDuel PGA DFS picks.
Here is what you can expect to find in this article:
- The Tournament and Format
- Course Commentary
- Course Facts and Figures
- PGA DFS Course Summary and Statistical Comparison
- PGA DFS Preview, including sweat sheet and now featuring optimal lineups from last year’s event
- Player Preview
The Genesis Invitational PGA DFS Picks and Preview
The Tournament and Format
Tiger’s pride and joy got an upgrade a few years ago, which moved the course to invitational status. It is now on par with the Memorial and the Arnold Palmer and we only have 120 golfers in the field. One of the long-standing traditions of the tournament is the Charles Sifford exemption, named after the first African-American on the PGA Tour, who this tournament back in the late 1960s. The exemption this year was given to Willie Mack III.
A week after the beautiful sights and sounds of Pebble Beach, we are treated to another great golf course, Riviera Country Club.
The Course(s)
Riviera Country Club
The tournament was first held in 1927 and the host course changed 11 times before settling at the Riviera Country Club in 1999, where it has been played ever since. The country club sits on a beautiful piece of land within Los Angeles designed by William Bell and George Thomas and typically provides a strong test off the tee. Last week, the average drive was one of the lowest, but driving accuracy was above 65% at Pebble. That’s not the case here at Riviera, as the fairways are only hit 55.95% of the time and the average drive is only 279 yards.
Course Facts and Figures
- Par 71: 7,300 yards.
Course Difficulty
- Riviera 10/49
Hole Dispersion
- Par 3’s : 236, 200, 192, 166
- The Par 4’s: 471, 434, 434, 408, 433, 458, 315, 479, 459, 475
- Par 5’s: 503, 583, 590
Grass Types and Hazards
- Grass Type: Poa/Bent greens with ryegrass fairways.
- Rough Length: 2 inches
Designer
- William Bell
Facts and Figures
- Off the Tee: As mentioned above, only 55% fairways are hit and the average drive is under 279 yards, both of which rank inside the top 15 hardest on tour.
- Approach to the Green: All those missed fairways and shorter drives lead to a lot of missed greens.
- Around the Green: While hitting off the tee may be very difficult here, once you get up around the and on the greens, it isn’t as difficult. Golfers get up and down 60% of the time.
- On the Green: For putting, the average was 1.621 ranking just about in the middle last year.
PGA DFS Course Summary and Statistical Comparison
A main theme of the week will be a heavy focus off the tee, as recent winners here have heavily relied on the stat en route to their victory. With almost every top golfer in the world here this week, the one that hit’s the most fairways this week is likely to win.
PGA DFS Slate Preview
The stars are certainly out this week in Los Angeles, and DraftKings put out their biggest offerings of the calendar year. A good sign of things to come. Especially given the fact that we’ve got a millionaire-maker already posted for next week’s Players Championship.
Previous Year PGA DFS DraftKings Results
I’ll cover three buy-in levels: The large-field GPP, the high-dollar GPP, and the single-entry mid-level buy-in. I’ll also provide a couple of notes on the overall scoring of the event.
Notes
- The tournament’s average score (among golfers that made the cut) was 68 points, with the highest at 115 and the lowest at 47.
- Only two golfers scored over 100 points.
- $20 Buy-In $800,000 Guaranteed:
- Total ownership of under 68%.
- It was not the optimal lineup.
- The lineup wasn’t duplicated.
- The cash line for the contest was 399.
PGA DFS Sweat Sheet
The famed first hole at Riviera provides an important start for the golfers as they look to get off to a first start. In fact 22% of their total’s round score is likely to come from this whole, with 29 eagles on it last year. The next batch of easy holes comes at 1o, the drivable par 4, and the reachable par 5 11th. The hardest hole on the course is the 12th.
Previous Winners of the Genesis Invitational
- 2020: Adam Scott (-11)
- 2019: J.B. Holmes (-14)
- 2018: Bubba Watson (-12)
- 2017: Dustin Johnson (-17)
- 2016: Bubba Watson (-15)
Player Preview
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