PGA DFS: The First Cut Picks & Preview for the Genesis Invitational

The PGA Tour heads south down the Golden Coast Highway, as the Tour arrives for their yearly stop in Los Angeles. With it comes the absolute best field of the year. It will be almost like a slap in the face, after going from multiple-course rotations to weak fields. It starts an important month of golf that includes a WGC, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship. Let’s dig into the Genesis Invitational.

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

Tournament intro
Course commentary
Sweatsheet and scorecard
DFS preview
Player and statistical preview
Summary

PGA DFS Tournament Intro

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

Tournament Format: 120 players, 36-hole cut with the top 65 and ties making the weekend.

Courses and Tournament Commentary

Getting the upgrade to invitational status, the Genesis Invitational in conjuncture with the Tiger Woods Foundation has gotten quite the upgrade this year. One of the reasons is because this tournament had a hard time accommodating a full field due to the time of year and getting all the golf in before daylight ends. So that brings together a stronger field, a larger purse and a three-year tour exemption to the winner.

The tournament itself has been around these parts for a long time. It’s been held at Riveria Country Club since the early 1970s, providing us plenty of data to go on. Charles Sifford, the first African-American on the PGA Tour, won the tournament back in the late 1960s, and now has a sponsor exemption in his name given to a player of African-American background to play in this tourney.

Bubba Watson is just one of the few golfers that have made this place his playground, winning three times in the last six years. Let’s take a look at why this course sets up so well for Watson.

Riviera Country Club

Par and Yardage

Par 71: 7,300 yards.

Course Difficulty 2019

10/49

Hole Dispersion: (Pebble Only)

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

Poa/Bent greens with kikuyu rough and fairways.

Designer

William Bell

PGA DFS Sweatsheet

It’s very rare that we see one hole account for over 20% of the DFS scoring, but that’s what we have this week with the first hole. It had over 150 birdies last year and also added 29 eagles. Add in 10 and 11, and now we are talking about 40% of the total scoring done in just three holes. Players will have to bear down and focus on those holes if they want to make any hay in the tournament and for our DFS lineups.

PGA DFS Preview

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Fantasy Golf Player and Statistical Preview

PGA DFS Commentary

Nine of the world’s top 10, 19 of the top 25 and close to 60 of the world’s top 100 are in this tournament. All of the big players here are, including Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods. It’s the first time all year that all of them will tee it up together, and the first time of quite a few in the next couple of months.

In addition to the star power at the top, the middle part of the field is also solid with Sungjae Im, Cameron Smith, Erik Van Rooyen, Jason Day and Sergio Garcia all set to play. With all the studs returning to play, there should be a variety of options to get your favorites at lower than normal ownership, but we’ll worry about that once the week starts.

Also, Collin Morikawa returns after a one-week hiatus, looking to extend his made-cut streak on tour. Bubba Watson has won this tournament three times in the past six years, and Dustin Johnson hasn’t been far behind.

PGA DFS Statistical Preview: The Genesis Invitational

Previous Winners

2019: J.B. Holmes: -14
2018: Bubba Watson: -12
2017: Dustin Johnson: -17
2016: Bubba Watson: -15
2015: James Hahn: -6

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PGA DFS Statistical Preview

Driving Accuracy vs. Driving Distance: The last four winners of the golf tournament ranked 16th, sixth and fourth, respectively, in terms of driving distance last year on tour. I think that’s a pretty clear indication that driving distance is paramount this week.
Strokes Gained Tee to Green Analysis: While driving distance may be critical this week, and accuracy will matter very little, approaches will be just as important, as the fewest strokes gained by a winner was 3.6 by Johnson. All of them except for Watson in 2018 had marginal strokes gained around the green. Thus driving distance, not necessarily strokes gained off the tee, and approaches are two key elements this week.
Putting, How good do you need to be here?: Well, none of those guys are particularly good at putting, especially Watson, but all can get hot. Holmes led the field last year in shots gained putting while Johnson was in the top five in 2017. Watson finished outside the top 10 but inside the top 20 in both of his wins.

Join Ben Rasa and me Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. EST on the Awesemo YouTube channel for some more great info on this week’s tournament.

Cheers!

As always, message me on Twitter or in our Premium PGA Slack Chat.

Author

Jason Rouslin

Jason established his roots in the littlest state that could...Rhode Island. But after 29 years of bitter cold, and only being able to play golf 4 months a year, upended those roots and moved to Florida. Now four years later, Jason is a husband to Sarah and father of two boys, James & Myles. A dog and more specifically Lab lover (Bella), he dedicates his time to serve as the lead of PGA content at Awesemo.com. In the time he is not diving into the PGA stats and covering this week's current tournament, you can find him researching and trading stocks, on the golf course, at Disney World, on a hike, or somewhere in between. Want to chat? Have a question about Golf/Stocks or anything else? Hop on twitter and give him a message @dfsgolfer23. You can also contact Jason by emailing [email protected].